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fOPYRUlHTEl). 

By F. W. Teepk" and A. Davis Smith 
1887. 




The attitude of Jefferson County toward American manufacturing has 
;suddenly assumed a determining influence. Its wonderful resources, and 
their possibilities, even now command general recognition in that division 
•of the world's manufacturing industry wherein wages are highest, labor 
-most dignified, and profits most certain. 

The execution of the plan of this volume required record to be made 
■of a circumstantial variety of conditions which, initiating in Jefferson 
■County, have laid the foundations of a wonderful industrial transformation 
perva>^..ig the entire State, and sensibly felt far beyond the bounda- 
ries of Alabama. The several features of the history these pages attempt 
are: A technical treatise, made popular, regarding the proof of the 
mineral wealth of the county ; the success of rail transportation in giving 
■commercial value to the products of mines and manufactures ; the indus- 
trial, financial, and social character of the population. 

The essay of Professor Henry McCalley is a most satisfying explana- 
tion of the incalculable natural resources confined in this county. The 
enterprise brought to bear upon them is fully discovered in the history of 
the great land corporations and the manufactories. The elevated char- 
acter of the community may be traced in the political and municipal 



Preface. 

government ; in tlie schools and churches ; the press ; pohtical, industrial, 
and religious, and social organizations so numerous and zealous. 

The biographical feature is replete with historical data of no common 
interest. Each separate sketch was obtained by special request of the 
publishers. A glance over the whole number will prove that Jefferson 
County development and the foundation and growth of Birmingham are 
the proud achievements, first, of Alabamians, and of Southern men next. 
No very rich individual came here as a pioneer. Very few individuals 
approached in fortune the designation of "rich men" among those who 
have given fame to the wealth of Jefferson County. All the leaders are 
recorded as of an active religious faith. 

The steel engravings are of the best style known to the art, and in 
ever)' instance were made expressly for the places they here fill. 

The volume is a Birmingham product. It was wholly prepared and 
put to press in this city, and the publishers, sharing the pride which 
doubtless all public-spirited citizens must feel in its successful appearance, 
intend it to be the forerunner of others whose office it shall be to proclaim 
and promote the fame and prosperity so honorably erected here. 

The Publishers. 

Birmingham, April, 1887. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Adams Private Bank I'lil 

Alabama Xational Bank. The LTi:! 

Al.lrich, T. H I'S 

Alum 42 

Anderson, F. Y ]l!0 

Anticlinal Valley 25 

Appalachian is, 20, 25 

Banks of Birmingham 246 

Bar, Roll of 93 

Bar, Members of 56 

Barker, M. P 151 

Baylor, W. K 84, S5 

Beard, Rev. T. J 218 

Bench and Bar 77 

Berney National Bank, The 257 

Birmingham, Situation of 54 

Birmingham National Bank, The . . 261 

Brown Ore, Analy.sis of 49 

Brown, Rev. Hardie 236 

Brown, John S5 

Browne, Very Rev. J. J 211 

Bugbee, Francis S6 

Cahaba Coal Field- 
Area of 36 

Analysis of 39 

Capacity of 38 

Dip of 39 

General Character of 37 

!Montevallo Group 38 

Transportatiofi of 39 

Canals and Railroads, Early 54 

Caldwell, Dr. H, M .... 1.55, 1 71 

Cantly, John 62 

Chazy Rock 44 

Churches, The 208, 245 

First Baptist. 226 

Colored Baptist 242 

The Advent 212 

St. Paul's Catholic 208 

The Christian 240 



Churches — Continued. 

Congregation Emanuel . 242 

First Methodist E., South 235 

St. John's Methodist E., South. . 237 

Second Methodist E., South 240 

North Methodist E 239 

Colored M^hodist. .». 245 

First Presbyterian 220 

Second Presbyterian 224 

Cumberland Presbyterian 226 

Clay — Fire, Iron, Stone 41 

Climate 18 

Clinton Group 44, 45 

City Bank, The 250 

City Government 189, 195 

Coal Fields 20 

Coal Measures. . . . , 18, 20 

Coal INIines, Early. 61 

Coal and Ore Mines 594 

Coal, Analysis of 34, 35 

Coal, Quality and Quantity of 20 

Coal, Primitive Mining 48 

Coalburg 144 

Coke, Production and Analysis. . . .33, 34 

Copperas 42 

Corporations, Miscellaneous — 

Alabama Real Estate and Loan. 271 

North Highlands 271 

North Birmingham Building . . . 271 

Alabama Co-operative 272 

Birmingham Corrugating 272 

Birmingham Investment 273 

Rogers Printing 273 

Ullman Hardware 273 

Watts Coal and Iron 273 

Birmingham Paint, Glass and 

"Wall Paper 274 

Land and Investment 274 

Alabama A.sphalt, Alining, etc. . 274 

Three Rivers Ciial and Iron 275 

First National Coal and Iron.. . . 275 



Index. 



Corporations — Continued. 

Peacock Coal, Iron, and Improve- 
ment 275 

Nortli Alabama Colored Land . . 275 

Birmingham Abstract 27(5 

Birmingham Construction 276 

People's Homestead, Building, 

and Loan 276 

Central Trust 277 

Co-operative Manufacturing and 

Building 2(7 

Industrial Protective 277 

Birmingham Land and Loan 277 

Birmiugham Real Estate and 

Investment 278 

Colored Mutual Investment 278 

Birmingham Land, Tanning, and 

Manufacturing 287 

Alabama Wagon and Carriage . . 287 
Kreble Engine Manufacturing.. 290 
Birmingham Iron Bridge and 

Forge 290 

Birmingham Furnace and ^Man- 

ufacturing 290 

Red Mountain Mining and Man- 
ufacturing 290 

Crops, Field 21 

County Officers 56, 73, 74, 75, 76 

Courthouse 55 

Cullinan, Colony of John G 135 

Cox, G. S ". 91 

Davis, Dr. Ralph 109 

Da^•is, Dr. Daniel 98 

Deason, G. T 109 

DeBardeleben, H. F 187 

Douglass, Howard 28 

Drainage 21 

Earle, Dr. Samuel 8 98 

Edwards, Dr. J. S 100 

Elyton Land Company 148, 184 

Ensley, Enoch 590 

Ernest, William S 91, 124 

Exchange, Cotton and Produce 295 

Farmers, Early 59 

Farm Products 128 

Farrar, T. W 86 

Faults 19 

First National Bank, The 250 



First Settlers 54, 60, 61 

Flatwoods 4a 

Forests 21 

Forrest, J. F 87 

Fossils 23 

Furnace, First 63 

Furnaces — 

Ahce 592 

Eureka .591 

Mary Pratt 593 

Williamson 593 

Woodward 591 

Projected 594 

Garland, Dr 125 

Geological History 18 

Grace, B. E 66 

Green, Colonel 61 

Hagood, Dr. Zachariah 100 

Handley, Rev. L. S 222 

Hawkins, Dr. Nathaniel 109 

Hay, Dr. Jones 103 

Hazlehurst, G. H 141 

Henley, R. H 91, 187 

Hewitt, Captain 61 

Hewitt, G. W 88- 

Hillman, T. T 580 

Hotels 309- 

Hubbard, David 120 

Indians 54, 57, 5& 

Iron Stone 41 

Iron Ores, Area of 48, 49 

Iron Ores, Analysis of 45, 46, 47 

Iron Ores, Black Band 41 

Industries 18 

Insurance Companies — 

Birmingham ; Iron and Oak ; 
Royal • 274 

Jefferson County 

Early History of 5S 

General Description of 17 

Jonesboro 58 

Jolly, J. J 92 

Judges — 

Chancery 84 

Circuit 80 

City Court 83 



Index. 



Judges — C'ontiuued. 

Criminal 322 

Probate 85 

Kent, Dr. J. E 109 

Keller, Dr. James 97 

Kelley, Moses 8.5 

King, Dr. Peyton . . 97 

Knox Dolomite 44, 47 

Knox Shale 48 

Land Companies, Suljurban — 

Avondale 261 

Smithfield 262 

North Birmingham 262 

East Lake 264 

East Birmingham 265 

Birmingham — Ensley 265 

Glendale ." 266 

Belt Road 266 

Mutual .266 

Walker . . 267 

South Side 267 

Village Creek 267 

East End 268 

Ensley 268 

Cahaba Valle}- 269 

East End Land and Improve- 
ment . . 269 

Clifton 269 

College Hill 270 

Bessemer 270 

Bradfield 271 

Highland Lake 271 

Central .... . . 271 

Land Grants 127 

Latitude 20 

Legislators 72, 73 

Lindsay, W. W . . . . .... 87 

Linn, Charles 248 

Little Basin 24, 25 

Longitude 20 

Lower Silurian 45 

Mails, Early 56 

Manufactories 279, 291 

Church's Machinery and Fine 

Tool " 279 

Southern Bridge. .. . 279 

Birmingham Agricultural Iniijle- 

ment 279 

Birmingham Iron 'Works 2S0 



•Manufactories — Continued. 

Wharton Flouring Mills 280 

Avondale Ice Factory 280 

Birmingham Ice Factory 280 

Jefferson Pressed Brick . . 280 

Birmingham Bridge and Bolt. . . 280 
■ Smitli's Sons Gin and Machine.. 281 

Alabama Iron Works .... 281 

Southern Foundry and Manufac- 
turing 282 

Baxter Stove 282 

Brewer's Sash, Door, and Blind 

Factory 282 

Avondale Iron 285 

Excelsior Foundry and INIachine 28.> 

Avondale Stove 285 

Birmingham Chain 286 

Birmingham Axe and Tool 286 

Thompson Brick 286 

Avondale Lumber and Milling.. 286 
Alabama Gas, Fuel, and Manu- 
facturing 287 

Birmingham Soaj) 287 

Enterprise Manufacturing Com- 
pany 290 

Caldwell Printing Works 291 

Mineral Water Manufacturing. . 291 

McCalla, R. C 142 

]\IcCaa, Eugene 91 

Marre, A 153 

Marshall, Dr. F. M 108 

Martin, Alburto 88 

Medical Profession 97 

INIedical Society 109 

^lerchants. Early . . 55 

Milner, John T.." 138 

Milner, Willis J 174 

Millstone, Grit 25, 26 

Miners, Nationality of 40 

Mineral Interests, Early 63 

Milner's Report 132 

Moore, W. W 91 

Moore, Gov. A. B 131 

Morris, Josiah.. 162 

Morrow, J. C 88 

Mudd, W. S 88 

Mussel Shoals 121, 13.S 

National Bank, The ... 249 

Natural Divisions 22 

New Castle - - 144 



Index. 



Pearson, R. H ill 

Peck, E. W 62, S6, S7 

Pennsylvania Coal, Quantity of . . . . 28 

Peters, Thomas 145 

Phelan, Ellis 98 

Physical Features 26 

Physicians 56, 117 

Pierce, Rev. J. D 238 

Pioneer Iron-Makers 580 

Places of Amusement 309 

Plateau and Basin Area 24 

Population 18 

Porter, M. T 86, 88 

Powell, James K 165 

Production 22 

Press, The 196, 207 

Jones' Valley Times 196 

Central Alabamian 196 

Elyton Herald 196 

Birmingham Sun 197 

Jefferson Independent 197 

Daily Sun 197 

Iron Age 197 

Chronicle 199 

Alabama Christian Advocate 200 

Kew South 200 

Labor Union 201 

Planters' Journal 202 

Land and Rail 203 

Furnace and Factory 203 

Alabama Jledioal and Surgical 

Journal . . 203 

Evening News 204 

Purser, Hev. D.I 231 

Railroads 18 

Railroads, Building 120 

Railroads, Convention to Promote.. 123 

Railroad, Queen & Crescent 129 

Riiilroad, Alabama Central 130 

Eailroads, Later 595 

Rainfall 20 

Kandolph, Nimrod D . . 103 

Eaw Material 17 

lied Mountain 45 

Rolling Mills 594 

Eock Mountain 24, 25 

Rodes, Gen. R. E 126 

Kobiuson, Dr. J. B 100 



Saltpetre 42 

Savings Bank, Jefferson County 254 

Schools, Public 245 

Section, General 29. 30, 31, 32, 44 

Sequatchee Valley . . 25 

Sherrod, Benjamin 121 

Silurian Rocks 45 

Sloss, J. W 185 

Sloss Steel and Iron Co 593 

Smith, Dr. J. R 103 

Societies, Secret and Social 

Knights of Pythias 301 

Cyrene Commandery 301 

Birmingham Fraternal Lodge, F. 

& A. M . 302 

Birmingham Encampment, I. O. 

O.F 302 

JMiueral City Lodge 302 

Knights of Honor 303 

Evening Star Lodge Knights and 

Ladies of Honor 303 

L'nited Charities 303 

Young iSIen's Christian Associa- 
tion 304 

Press Club 305 

Women's Christian Temiierauce 

Union 306 

Yard-Masters' IMutual Benefit 

Association 306 

Order Railway Conductors 307 

-Alabama Club 307 

German Society 308 

G. A. R. George A. Custer Post.. 308 

Knights of Labor 308 

Brotherhood of Locomotive En- 
gineers 576 

Soils 21 

Stones 41 

Strata, Dip of 24 

Strata, Sub-Carboniferous 33 

Temperature 20 

Three-per-cent. Fund 64 

Timber 42 

Topography 20 

Towns and Villages 595 

Tuomey, Michael 42, 123 

Transportation, City 296, 301 

Trenton Rocks 44 

Troy, Daniel S 179 



hidex. 



Upheavals : 

Upper Silurian . . . . 

Valleys 

Valley, Anticlinal. 
Vann, Dr. J. B.... 
Vegetable Matter.. 
Volunteers, Early. 



I'.t 

4l.> 
109 



Walker, Peter S,5 

Walker, Jr., W. A SS 

Walker, T. A SS 

"Warrior Coal Field 2;! 

Composition of .... '1\ 

Workable Seams of. ... 

Thickness of 

Value of 

Capacity of 

Complications of 



Warrior Coal Field — Ciintinueil. 

Clean Coal 33 

Character of 33 

Numlx'r of. . 27 

How Used 36 

How Mined 35 

How Reached 3.5 

Area of . . 25 

Warrior River, Flcnv of 2t), 36 

Water Divide 20 

Waterworks 183 

Webb, /. B 57 

AVholesale Houses 292, 295 

Wilson, W. L 85 

Wilson, P. N 88 

White Child, First Born 54 

Younj;, H. A . 91 



hidex to Portraits. 



INDEX TO PORTRAITS. 



Berry, Wm. E .:.. 501 

^ Berney, William 256 

J Boddie, Jolm B 425 

_, Boland, R. W 452 

•Caldwell, H. M 171 

-* Cameron, W. J 251 

-^ Davin, Walter W 474 

-Davis, J. D. S H6 

.Davis, W. E. B 394 

Eastman, E 429 

^ Grace, Baylis E 52 

"Handley, Wm. A 437 

^ Hawkins, James E 347 

- Hillman, T. T 581 

" Hudgins, T. L 417 

•Johns, L. W 560 

- Jordan, M. H 106 

Kelley, George C 283 

Lane, A. O 78 

-- Luckie, J. B 385 

Martin, Alburto 89 

-^ Milner, John T 137 



JMilner, Willis J 175-'^ 

MfAdory, Chambers .509 ^ 

McCary, Clyde J . . 513' .\ 

Mudd," Wm". S 82^' 

Pearson, Robert H 330 "- 

Phillips, J. H 244 

Porter, Mitchell T 319 , 

Purser, D. 1 230 ^ 

Read, John W 260' . 

Roberts, Willis 205 

Roden, B. F 297 , 

Russell, James M ^ 367 j 

Smith, Joseph R 102 v 

Smith, R.D 433- 

Stevens, Jr. , E. G 455 ^ 

Tabor, B. H 360 

Taliaferro, E. T 339 , 

Terry, John T 333 \ 

Thomson, John M 505 

Underwood, W. T 448 , 

Walker, AVra. A 68 -^ 

Walker, Jr., AVm. A 326 .. 

AVestbrook, J. C 5ia 

Williamson, C. P 445- .. 



Index to Biographies. 



INDEX TO BIOGRAPHIES. 



Abernethy, B. G 399 

Abernethy, J. C 398 

Allen, B. M 376 

Allen, James A 469 

Allen, Henry 531 

Altman, J.J ■ . ■ 363 

Ashford, T. T 494 

Ansley, W. W 549 

Ball, Geo. C 461 

Bains, G. W 492 

Bankhead, J. H 442 

Bass, J. W 555 

Barelift, H. H 494 

Barclift, L. M., Jr 494 

Berney, Wm 419 

Bethea, W. M 365 

Beggs, H. T 477 

Berry, W. E 500 

Berry, R. A 401 

Beitman, Joseph 467 

Billups, J. M., Jr 416 

Boddie, John B 424 

Boggan, M. ]M 496 

Boland, K. W 453 

Bradley, R. C 405 

Brewer, W. P 454 

Bridges, E. L 461 

Brooks, W. :^I 342 

Brown, H. U 372 

Brownlee, E. G 522 

Buchanan, 3.\ 499 

Burwell, O. S 539 

Burwell T. 477 

Burgin, W. M 406 

Byrne, Patrick 459 

Cameron, W. J 420 

Campbell, E. K 375 

Campbell, G. W 488 



Carter, J. R 411 

Chew.W.L 400 

Cheek, Amos 498 

Chenoweth, W. A 491 

Clarke, H. 527 

Clarkson, E. L 354 

Cobbs, Thomas 317 

Cobbs, J. B 421 

Cochrane, H. P 397 

Copeland, W. B 485 

Copeland, H. J 525 

Copeland, B. G 39{> 

Cowin, Tom 553 

Cox, James A 401 

Crawford, W. W 548 

Crawford, Toombs 552 

Crowe P. P 556 

Cruikshank^G. M 412 

Cunningham, R. M 573 

Darby, S. J 373 

Davis, Elias 380 

Davis, Daniel 378 - 

Davis, J. D. S 391 

Davis, W. E. B 395 

Davin, Walter W 475 

Davis & Worcester 467 

Dawson, W. W 464 

Dill, H. H 572 

Dozier, J. C 388 

DuBose, J. W 413 

Earle, J. B 482 

Earle, P. H 483 

Eastman, E 428 

Edmonds, E. N 416 

ElHs, C. C 519 

Emmons, S. W 479 

Enslen, C. F ... 422 

Enslen, E. F 422. 



Index to Biographies. 



Erswell, Edward 484 

Eubank, Alfred o36 

Eubank, George oliH 

Evans, F. V 4(17 

Francis, C. H 4.S5 

Francis, J. B 4!)1 

Fulton, E. K :!(14 

Fulwiler, R. W 550 

Garrett, J. J 353 

Gayle, J. P 5l>7 

Gillespy, J. S 400 

Gillespie, J. M 374 

Gilmer, W. B 5l'6 

Glailden, F. C ■ 552 

Going, J. A 500 

Greene, S. E 322 

Green, N. T 5J8 

Grace, D. B 414 

Grady, J. F 4ii7 

Gregg, M. ,J ;;75 

Gould, William 556 

Hagood, R. H 521 

Handley, W. A 4;?5 

Hanby, S. M 5^0 

Hand, D. M 53,3 

Hargreaves, H. W 570 

Hawkins, J. E ;;46 

Hawkins, A. X 49S 

Harding, W. P. G 547 

Harris, G. H 57I 

Harris, G. W 497 

Heflin, J. T 314 

Henley, A. T liOl 

Henley, J. C 41S 

Hewett, G. W Sl>4 

Hickman, W. P 402 

Higgins, W. H 533 

Higdon, E. L 478 

Hochstadter, I. R 554 

Hochstadter, A. F 408 

Hopkins, .T. B 489 

Hood, AVm 4S(5 

Horton, W. M 5:57 

Houston, W. A 5(i8 

Huey, J. M 500 

Hughes, B. M 388 

Hughes, C. T 535 



Hudgins, T. L 417 

Hudson, M. G 528 



Ingram, C. J. K.. . . 
Irion, F. M 



508 
405 



.letters, Thomas 534 

Jemison, Robert 427 

Jemison, J. S 3()4 

Johns, L. \V 5(il 

Johnston, W. H 389 

Jones, J. C 574 

Jones, E. R 4i)3 

Jordan, M. H 381 

Kelloy, George C 450 

Kettig, W. H 47() 



Lacey, E. P .. . , 

Laird, S. E 

Lane, A. 

Ledbetter, J. A. . 
Ledbetter S. L.. 
Lighton, S. H . . . 

Linn, E. W 

Lindsay, W. M. . 

Long, J. C 

Lowe, R. J 

Luckie, J. B. . . . 

Lyons, T. B 

Lynch, J. E 



558 
493 
330 



. . 400 
. . 459 
. . 421 
. . 480 
. . 554 

. 3G9 
. . 384 

. 423 
. . 493 



INIalone, W. N 472 

Martin, J. M 349 

Martin, Alburto 322 

Marshal, J. B 533 

Marable, D. T 551 

Mercer, Harry 487 

Merrill, C. A 537 

Miles, G. G 512 

IMcAdory, Chambers 508 

McAdory, R. A 350 

McCary, J. H 478 

McCary, C. J 511 

McCarthy, F. W 400 

McClary, J. B 507 

McCune, J .H 550 

IMcEachin, A. B 370 

McKinney, H. M 409 

McLester, Joseph 400 



Index to Biooi-aphies. 



VxV 



Moore, Moore <& Handley 4.S0 

Moore, J. G ■"'70 

Morehead, F. C 415 

Morrow, J. C 315 

Morrow, G. M 396 

Mountjoy, C. A :!70 

Mudd, W. S \'A\ 

Mudd, J. P 432 

Nabers, \V. F ,. . . . 539 

Naff, W. H '.. 499 

Naff, J. M 575 

Nicholson, Evan 541 

O'Brien, Frank P 542 

Oliver, Wm. G . 5'-'3 

Olmstead, E. 1) 4S7 

Owen, R. W 523 

Fatty, H. M , 372 

Peanson, R. IT 331 

Peebles, J. PI 492 

Perry, H. A\' 479 

Ferryman & Dearborn 529 

Phelan, John 540 

Phillips, J. II 410 

Porter, M. T 318 

Porter, M. A 363 

Porter, ^\ X 547 

Price, Isaac 5G1 

Read, John W 420 

Reese, C. H 4()(! 

Rancher, C. i? 52() 

Richards, E. A . 523 

Rogers, P. J 5G9 

Roberts, Charles . . 416 

Roden, B. F 441 

Roden, J. B 483 

Rowlett, Jr., Daniel 525 

Russell, James M 366 

Raps, George 553 

Schillinger, Philip ^ 462 

Schwab Jonas 496 

Sears, J. W 387 

Senn, Chas. A 305 

Shackleford, J. D 496 

Shahan, John 480 



Sharpe, II. A 321 

Shaw, Willis 476 

Shepherd, CD 521 

Sheppard, F. (J 5.33 

Shideler, \V. L 465 

Sidel, Edouanl 530 

Sisson, ( '. W 458 

Slade, C. E 548 

Smith, Joseph R 378 

Smith, D. D 369 

Smith, T. S 489 

Smith, H. D ... 519 

Smith, P. R , 491 

Smith, R. D 431 

Smith, AV. C 516 

Solomon &. Levi . . . . 554 

Stevens, Jr., E. G 4,54 

Stillman, J.JI.. . 516 

Stiles, J. P :^77 

Sterrett, R. H 351 

Stone, Harry.. . 552 

Strange, J. I) 373 

Sutclirt'e, Armstrong & Willett 531 

Tabor, B. H 361 

Taliaferro, E. T 338 

Tarrant, A.J 403 

Terry, John T 332 

Terry, Jr., John T 524 

Thompson, T. G 490 

Thompson, N. F . . 504 

Thom.son, P. K 524 

Thomson, John M 503 

Thornton, T. F 497 

Throckmorton, M. B .432 

Tillman, J. P 3()1 

Tomlinson, J. W . . 371 

Torrey, Samuel 488 

Truss, S. R ... 403 

TjHer, A. A .544 

Tvler, G. W .375 



Underwood, \\'ni. T 
Underwood, O. W .. 

VanHoose, J. ]M . . . 
Vanlloose, J. A.... 

Yaughan, A\'m 

Veitch, John . 



449 
371 

358 
470 
374 
460 



»vi 



Index to Biographies. 



W;Mle. A.C 533 

Walker, Win. A .vSS 

Walker, Jr., Wm. A 3l'8 

Walker, E. W ..527 

AVard, W. C 3o.t 

Ward, G. R 543 

Ware, J. A 529 

Warren, Edward 507 

Watkins, J. L 412 

Watlington, H. L 37{) 

Weatherly, James 362 

Webb, James E 357 

AVeil, M. & Bro 497 

Westbrook, J. C 519 

Whelan, Charles 390 

^Whilden, B. D 487 



Wilda, R. AV. A 546 

Wilson, Rev. W. L 515 

Wilson, J. W 493 

Wilson, J. E 493 

Wilson, H. F 525 

Wilson, P. B . 515 

Wilson, A. O 545 

Williamson, C. P 444 

AViun, H. J 398 

Withington, M. E 492 

Wood, C. W 464 

Wood, W. H 540 

Wooldridge, W. H 457 " 

Yancey, AVm. E 495 



Jeffersop ^oupty. 



Je^^eyjori C^only* 



ITS TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, AND NATURAL RESOURCES. 



HENRY McCALLEY, A. M., C. & M. E. 

Chemist and Assistant State Geologist. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Description and Remarks. 

Jefferson County is one of the central counties of Alabama, and is 
the banner county of the South in such as will make it permanently rich 
and prosperous, and in such as is of the greatest interest and importance 
to mankind. Its topography is pleasing and striking, its geology is 
interesting and instructive, and its natural resources are varied and 
wonderful. 

It is of a rectangular shape, and is about thirty-eight miles long, 
from north-east to south-west, by some twenty-five miles wide from 
north-west to south-east, thus embracing about 960 square miles. It is 
preeminently a manufacturing county, and is destined, from the very 
nature of things, to take a front rank in the variety and value of its 
manufactured goods and in its railroad facilities. It presents, as its chief 
advantages and inducements to the manufacturers of iron, cotton, glass, 
wooden, and other goods, cheap raw materials, cheap power, cheap 



Jefferson County. 

transportation, cheap homes, cheap fuel, cheap food, and a healthy and 
invigorating climate, comparatively free from all the rigors of a Northern 
winter and the scorching sun of a Southern summer. Its industries are 
rapidly advancing and multiplying, and its properties are rapidly increas- 
ing in value. This rapid increase is confined to no particular branch of 
its industries and to no single element of its prosperity, but they all 
appear to have the motto, "Onward and Upward," and everywhere there 
is to be seen push, activity, enterprise, and progress. The increase in its 
taxable property, as returned by the assessor, was nearly $3,000,000 for 
the year 1885, ^"^ it will be much more for the year 1886. This almost 
unparalleled increase is due principally to the great prosperity of its 
present or established industries and to the introduction of its numerous 
new ones. In the building of new railroads, it is especially on a big 
boom. Besides being traversed by three great trunk railroad lines, it will 
soon be penetrated to its very heart's core by four others that are now 
being built, and very likely by still three others that have been survej'ed 
and will most probably be built. When all of its projected railroads 
shall have been built, its capital city, Birmingham, will be the greatest 
railroad center of the South. 

Its population is also growing rapidly. By the census of 1880 it 
had a population of only 23,272 (whites, 18,219; colored, 5,053), and 
now Birmingham alone has some 30,000, and the county must have near 
60,000, though the tide of immigration has just set in. Of these many 
new-comers there have been seen but very few discofitents and drones. 
They are principally skilled laborers of intelligence, integrity, industry, 
and enterprise, and to them it should be said : If, with well-directed 
energy, you will but bend yourselves with patience and perseverance to 
the tasks set before you, you will inevitably succeed, and will be assured 
as to your reward, plenty, and prosperity. 

Geological History. 

This county was once throughout but a part of a vast sandy plain 
that gently sloped to the S.-W.-S., and had not a single elevation or 
depression of any kind to relieve the monotony of the scenery. This 
monotonous sandy plain covered, at the least, one-half of the northern 
half of the State and formed the then Coal Measures of Alabama. 
Things were thus when the eastern part of the United States was 
subjected to such a disturbance, or revolution, as it has never felt before 
or since. This revolution has been characterized as the Appalachian 



Its Topogyaplty, Geology, and NaUtral Resoitrces. 19 

revolution, and during it there was thrown up, in a general north-east 
and south-west direction, and somewhat parallel to the Atlantic coast 
from Canada to Central Alabama, a series of mountains that have 
received the name of the Appalachian chain. In the upheaval of some 
of these mountains, the strata were too stiff to bend in the sharp folds 
into which they were pressed, and so they were cracked along the lines 
of greatest strain, usually the tops of the mountains. These cracks 
furnished ready-made channels for the denuding streams that have 
washed these mountains down into anticlinal valleys with elevated rims. 
In some instances, in this folding or mountain-making process, the strata 
were so stiff as to bend but very little, if any at all, and hence, in these 
cases, they were not only cracked, but on one side of the crack were 
pushed up over the corresponding strata on the other side, producing 
what is known as faults. These faults are common throughout the 
Appalachian chain of mountains, and sometimes are miles in length, andl 
have vertical displacements of the strata of thousands of feet. These 
upheavals or mountains, with their subsequent denudation, changed the 
topographical features and geological structure of the country traversed 
by them from one of sameness to one of variety and interest. They 
gave the general directions to the main streams of the country near them, 
and oftentimes threw up and left grand natural boundaries between the 
different geological formations. In this county, as elsewhere, they form 
one of the most remarkable instances on record c le adaptation of the 
earth's surface to man's wants. For, had the county remained as it 
originally was, one monotonous sandy plain, or had its rocks or geological 
strata retained their original horizontal positions, much of our best and 
now easily available coal would have been buried so deep below the 
surface that it never would have been reached by the hand of man, and 
the existence of our most valuable and vast deposits of iron ores and 
limestones never would have been even suspected. If they had have 
been suspected, they never would have done us any good, as they were a 
mile or so below the surface. The revealing and making available to us 
of this great hidden wealth of coal, iron, and limestone, rendered especially 
valuable from the manner in which they were thrown together in close 
juxtaposition, are not the only beneficial effects that we have received 
from these upheavals and denudations. They made and left us valleys of 
great fertility, that form, through our most important mineral section, 
the great commercial highways between the North-east and the South- 
west, with firm natural roadbeds, for hundreds of miles, even up to the 
mouths of our mines. These great results vvere brought about by the 



Jefferson Coji7ity. 

simplest possible means, though in a most effectual and interesting way, 
namely: By the mere pushing up of the valuable strata, and the washing 
off of their heavy cover, along narrow strips of land. These narrow 
strips of land, washed out into anticlinal valleys, divide the Coal Measures 
of Alabama into three more or less distinct parts, that were named by 
Prof. Tuomey, in 1849, the Warrior, Cahaba, and Coosa Coal Fields, 
respectively, from the names of the rivers which drain them. These 
coal fields show that they are not separate coal basins, strictly speaking, 
in that they do not occur in circular or oval forms, but in long and trough- 
shaped areas with elevated rims that are the results of uplifting forces. 
In the washing out of the anticlinal valleys that separate these coal fields 
the Coal Measures of Alabama have lost several thousand square miles 
of their original extent, and so Alabama now ranks only eighth of the 
States of the Union in the acreage of its Coal Measures ; it, however, is 
one of the very first in the quantity and quality of its coal. One of the 
cracked and washed-out mountains of the Appalachian region was 
pushed up across this county, and a second one was in line to cross this 
county, but died out just as it reached the county. The one that crosses 
this county is the elevated valley, with raised limits, in which Birmingham 
is situated. The elevation of this valley is shown from the fact that its 
floor is higher than the mountainous country on each side of the valley 
or is a water divide for about 100 miles in Alabama. It is the divide 
between the waters of the Warrior and Cahaba Rivers, and hence 
separates the Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields. 

Topography, Etc. 

The topographical features of this county are varied and picturesque, 
as well as pleasing and striking, and consist principally in the surface 
configuration, produced by upheavals, denudation, and the geological 
structure. 

This county lies between 33° 15' and 33° 45' N. latitude and between 
9° 24' and 10° 10' W. longitude from Washington. Its altitudes vary 
from about 260 feet to 900 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, and its atmos- 
phere is clear, pure, dry, and crisp, without any dampness or heaviness. 
Its climate is comparatively mild ; its mean winter temperature, for 
December, January, and February, being about 42° F. ; its mean summer 
temperature, for June, July, and August, being about ']'j° F., and its mean 
annual temperature being about 58° F. It has a winter rainfall, with 
melted snow, for December, Januarj-, and February, of about fourteen 



Its Topography, Geology, and Natural Resources. 2 1 

inches; a summer rainfall, for June, July, and August, of also about 
fourteen inches, and an annual rainfall, with melted snow, of about fifty- 
five inches. 

Water and Drainage. — This county is well watered with springs and 
streams of perpetual flow, and is so drained that there are but few 
marshes and malarial regions within its bounds. It has, extending along 
its whole length, near, and somewhat parallel, to its two edges, two swiftly 
running rivers, and crossing its interior, at intervals of every few miles, 
are large creeks with rapid currents. These large creeks rise on the 
divide, or in the anticlinal valley, between the rivers and near the south- 
east edge, in beautiful and bold everlasting limestone springs, and, with 
but one exception, flow in a general north-west direction, across almost 
the entire width of the county, and empty into the great drainage channel 
of the county, the Warrior River. 

Grozvth. — This county is still, for the most part, covered with its 
native forest, which includes a vast amount and a great variety of valuable 
timber. Its large growth consists, in the order of their abundance, of 
oaks, pines, gums, hickories, dogwoods, cedars, chestnut, poplar, cypress, 
etc. The oaks are principally post oaks and black jacks, with a consid- 
erable mixture of red, Spanish, white, and chestnut oaks. The pines are 
of both the short and long leaf varieties, though chiefly of the former. 
The gums are of the sweet and sour kind, and the hickories are of the 
several species. The dogwoods are of the comparatively low grounds, 
while the cedars cover the limestone ridges, knolls, and glades. The 
chestnut, poplar, and cypress were once abundant, but are now quite 
scarce. 

Soils. — The soils or lands over the greater part of this county have 
heretofore been held in bad repute, and have been neglected as farming 
lands simply because they were naturally poor for the great staples of 
the "Old South," cotton and corn. Within the last few years, however, 
since phosphatic guano and other fertilizers have come into common use, 
these lands have grown very much in appreciation, until now those which 
were formerly considered the most worthless or poorest are being looked 
upon and sought after as the most valuable and reliable for even cotton 
and corn. Cotton and corn, however, are not the crops for these lands, 
or for the " Hill Country of Alabama," and the sooner our people find it 
out the better it will be for them and for the State. These lands, as well 
as the climate, are peculiarly adapted to the raising of fruits and veg- 
etables, crops with which the markets of the world are seldom, if ever, 
glutted ; and to the nurseryman, vineyardist, and horticulturist, whom 



Jefferso7i County. 

the county invites to come and supply its large and rapidly-increasing 
demands for a greater variety of home-raised, fresh, and wholesome food 
products, these lands are all that could be desired. Nature intended 
them for gardens, orchards, vineyards, and pastures, and just in the same 
proportion as the farming class recognize this fact or law, and act upon 
it, or put their means, brains, and hands to the raising of vegetables, 
fruits, and grasses, will they prosper, and will this beautiful and healthy 
mountainous region blossom and bear fruit. 

Production. — By the census of 1880, only one-eighth of this county, 
or about 72,000 acres, was in cultivation. Of these 72,000 acres, 14,220 
were in cotton, with a yield of 5,333 bales of 400 pounds each; 30,928 
were in Indian corn, with a yield of 429,660 bushels ; 4,708 were in oats, 
with a yield of 60,038 bushels; 55 were in tobacco, with a yield of 
17,649 pounds, and 504 were in potatoes, with a yield of 44,091 bushels. 

N.\TUKAL Divisions. 

The topographical features, as well as the geological structure, of this 
county were, as has been seen, very much effected by the upheav^als and 
denudation of the Appalachian region, or by the anticlinal valley which 
crosses this county and divides it into three very unequal and distinct 
parts. These parts are separated from each other by the raised rims to 
the anticlinal valley, and therefore consist of the anticlinal valley itself 
and the portions of the county respectively to the north-west and south- 
east of this valley. The two outside portions are of one and the same 
geological formation, as was the whole county previous to the mountain- 
making epoch of the Appalachian revolution, namely, the Coal Measures ; 
but the middle or anticlinal valley portion is of pushed-up older and lower 
rocks, geologically speaking, or contains representatives of all of the 
geological formations that occur in Alabama between the Carboniferous 
and Lower Silurian, inclusive. As these parts, or natural divisions, of the 
county are entirely different, as to their topographical features and 
geological structure, they will be considered separately, and will be 
designated, commencing with the most north-western or largest one, 
as Part I, II, and III. 



Its Topography , Geology, and Natitral Resources. 

PART I. 

Of the Warrior Coal Field. 

Its Coal Measures and its Coal : Stnicture and Unequaled Thickness, General 
Section, Extraordinary Ouatttity, Quality, and Value of its Coals — The 

Warrior Field in Jefferson County : The Nature, Quantity, and Quality 
of its Coals, with Analyses a?id Tests ; their Adaptation to Cheap Mvdng 
and Cheap Tratisportation ; the Number of Coal Mines and their Coal 

Output ; the Uses of this Coal. 

The Warrior Coal Field embraces all of the Coal Measures in 
Alabama north-west of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, or all of 
those drained by the Warrior and Tennessee Rivers. This area has been 
estimated at 7,810 square miles, or, as nearly two-thirds as much as the 
coal area of Great Britain. It is to the north-west of the principal axis 
of the Appalachian revolution, and the original horizontal position of its 
strata, away from its uplifted edges, was not very much effected by the 
upheavals of that revolution, and its topographical features, away from 
these uplifted edges, have not the same intimate connection with the 
geological structure that those areas have which are more in the direct 
line of action of the above named revolution. 

This coal field, as a whole, is a trough-shaped area, extending length- 
wise from north-east to south-west, and is much broken, especially along 
the water courses. It consists, as do all of our coal fields, of a series of 
sandstones, conglomerates, shales, slates, clays, and coal seams, with, 
locally at least, a few thin seams of impure limestone. Its measures are 
characterized by the greatest abundance of fossils, which are well 
preserved, and are found principally in the shales overlying the coal 
seams. Among these fossils there are some stems of very large plants that 
belong to the genera Sigillaria, Lipidodendron, and Calamites. These 
fossil trunks of trees are usually of light carbonaceous sandstones, 
frequently distinctly marked, and sometimes as much as three feet in 
diameter. They are occasionally found standing perpendicularly upon 
the coal seams and extending up into the roofs or covers, leaving little 
doubt but that they grew as they were found. This position of the fossil 
coal plants in place, taken in connection with the richness of the coal 
seams in well-preserved fossils, would seem to indicate that the vast 
amount of vegetable matter of which these coal seams were formed, 
grew and accumulated over the very areas now covered by the coal seams. 



24 Jefferson Coimty. 

The general dip of its strata is a few degrees to the S. -\V.-S. , but 
as this dip is something less than the general inclination of the surface, 
the measures continue to thicken to the south-west until they become 
covered up by a newer formation. This regular and small angle of dip 
of its strata is characteristic of the Warrior Field when compared with the 
other two coal fields of Alabama. To give to this area a trough or basin 
shape, the strata of the south-east side have an additional dip to the 
north-west, from the elevated south-east rim, and those of the north-^\ est 
side have a dip to the south-east. The strata of these two sides are also 
in long, flat waves from north-west to south-east, while those of the center 
of the trough are in similar waves from north-east to south-west. 

This field has been conveniently and appropriately divided into a 
plateau and basin area, without any distinct line of demarcation between 
the two, the one gradually merging into the other. 

The plateau is composed principally of the hard, weather-resisting 
conglomerates and sandstones near the base of the measures, und 
comprises the elevated north-eastern part of the field and a portion 
of the south-eastern rim. It is divided into two parts by Brown's Valley, 
which is the extension into Alabama of the great Sequatchie Vallc\- of 
Tennessee. 

The basin takes in the lower or south-west end, and the greater half 
of the field. It is, as a general thing, more broken than the plateau, for 
the reason that it is composed principally of softer rocks which have 
suffered more from denudation. Its upper or north-eastern end is made 
forked by the extending down into it, between Big and Little Warrior 
Rivers, almost to their fork, the prolongation of Brown's Valley as an 
unbroken anticlinal ridge. It is made up, above drainage level, for the 
most part, of shales and sandstones piled up to a great thickness of 
successive strata upon the hard conglomerates and sandstones of the 
plateau. This basin is very rich in workable seams of coal, which 
increase in number to the south-west until the Coal Measures become 
entirely covered up at Tuscaloosa. 

Little Basin. — There is cut off, by a combined fold and vault, from 
the south-east edge of the Warrior Field, a strip of land, about twelve 
miles long by over three in width, that has received the name of the 
Little Basin. It is a complete tray-shape depression, rounding in a general 
north-east and south-west direction, or with the bordering anticlinal 
valley. Its upper or north-east end is, however, concave, and its south- 
east rim. Rock Mountain, the uplifted edge of the Warrior Coal Field, 
composed of the hard conglomerates and sandstones of the plateau, is 



Its Topography, Geology, mid Natural Resoiirces. 25 

much taller than its north-west border, formed by an anticlinal fold with 
a fault along it. Along this fault there has been a great vertical 
displacement of the strata by an upheaval of the south-east or Little 
Basin side. 

The Warrior Coal Field and the great Appalachian Coal Field end, so 
far as can be seen, on the south-west in the rocks in the bed of the Warrior 
River at Tuscaloosa, or just below the head of navigation of that river. 
At and near this most south-western visible end, these coal fields are 
believed to have their greatest thickness of Coal Measures and their great- 
est number of coal seams. These Coal Measures, under and near Tusca- 
loosa, are believed to be over 3,000 feet thick, and to contain some 53 
seams of coal, with a combined thickness of about 125 feet of coal. 

Jefferson County comprises about 630 square miles of the Warrior 
Coal Field. As stated, all that part of the county north-west of the Anti- 
clinal Valley is of this field. This area is of a rectangular shape, running 
lengthwise with the Anticlinal Valley. It is a great synclinal trough, or 
scoop-shape depression, with all of its south-east rim and about two-thirds 
of its north-west border, parts of great and parallel anticlinal folds. The 
south-east fold is of the Anticlinal Valley and extends clear through the 
county, while the fold of the north-west border is the south-west terminus 
of the great Sequatchie Valley of Tennessee or of Brown's Valley of 
Alabama, as an unbroken and undenuded fold, or it is the south-west 
terminus of the mountain that is said to have merely touched or reached 
this county before dying out. Of these two folds or rims, in this county, 
the south-eastern one, as a whole, is much the higher, though a portion of 
this south-eastern rim is of a down-throw along faults, and is not very 
elevated. This south-east rim is from 300 to 600 feet above the Warrior 
River, while the fold of the north-west border is only about 200 feet above 
this river, which runs along close to its base. The elevated south-east 
rim, with the exception of the portion in the down-throw, is composed, 
for the most part, of the hard and massive conglomerate, called Millstone 
Grit, and sandstones near the base of the Coal Measures, and is known as 
Rock Mountain, while the surface rocks of the fold of the north-west border, 
though hard and massive, are somewhat softer, lighter, and higher in the 
measures, except as this fold enters the county in the extreme northern 
part. 

The Millstone Grit, in its out-crops capping the south-east rim or Rock 
Mountain, is usually either perpendicular or is so bent over on itself as to 
throw its bottom on top or to reverse its north-west dip to the south-east. 

Along the south-east base of this mountain, or between the capping 



26 Jefferso7i County. 

Millstone Grit and the lower and older rocks of the Anticlinal Valley, there 
is nearly always a mass of debris that hides the underlying strata, though 
they are known to cover, through the greater length of this county, a 
fault that frequently brings Lower Silurian rocks of the valley side in con- 
tact with the Coal Measures. 

Next to upheavals and denudations, such hard, weather-resisting rocks 
as the above Millstone Grit, are the most important factors in determining 
surface configuration or variety and picturesqueness of scenery. Hence, 
the surface of that portion of the Warrior field which is in Jefferson 
County is most irregular, and its physical features are most varied and 
striking, along the south-east and north-west boundaries, where the 
upheavals and denudations have been greatest and where these hard rocks 
are most highly exposed. . As stated, this area is a synclinal trough, and 
hence, in a general way, it is made up of two water-sheds. These water- 
sheds are very unequal ; the one on the south-east or the north-west 
water-shed of the elevated south-east rim forming the greater part of the 
area. On these water-sheds, and especially on the greater one, there are 
smaller ridges which run up and down the trough, or parallel to the 
elevated outside ridges or folds. These inside or smaller ridges are the 
results of waves in the strata, and of the out-croppings of the harder and 
more indestructible strata. 

The Warrior River flows along near the juncture of the above water 
sheds, or near the bottom of the trough, and owes its general direction to 
that of the trough. This river, with its arteries, or large side streams, 
keeps this portion, or the greater portion, of the county well drained. 

Being a trough the strata of the two sides or of the above water 
sheds, in addition to their general dip of 3° or 4° to the south-west, have 
general dips toward the river or bottom of the trough, and are in long, 
flat waves in the same direction, while those of the bottom of the trough 
are in similar waves in the direction of the trough. 

The south-east edge of this field, along the Anticlinal Valley, is 
especially complicated by folds and faults. These folds have one general 
direction, that of the Anticlinal Valley, while the faults run not only in this 
same general direction but also somewhat at right angle to it. Locally 
the directions of the folds and faults are sometimes quite different from 
the above, for they have been seen in certain localities to be running 
almost due north and south and east and west. 

Along the north-east and south-west faults, or those in the direction 
of the anticlinal valleys, the vertical displacements of strata are much 
greater than in the cross faults, or those at right angle to this direction. 



lis Topos^rapliy, Geology, and Natural Reso^irces. 27 

These north-east and south-west faults do not always run parallel to the 
Anticlinal Valley, or to the south-east edge of the Warrior Coal Field, but 
sometimes run in and out the Coal Measures, as these measures encroach 
upon the valley, and cut off, on the Anticlinal Valley side, strips from the 
Coal Measures. The Little Basin is an example of this cutting-off process. 
The upper half of this little basin is in Jefferson County. 

The Coal Measures of the Warrior Field in this county are complicated 
in other ways than by folds and faults. The same strata, for instance, are 
always more or less variable, though not more so than in other parts of this 
same field or in other fields. The number of strata, and the distance 
between two well-known strata, are sometimes quite different at localities 
only a few miles apart. This difference is likely due to the splitting up of 
some, by the interpolation of others, and by variableness in the same 
strata which may result in the thickening of a mere streak to a stratum 
several or many feet in thickness, or the reverse. Again, the strata, 
frequently without breaking, suddenly fall from one elevation to that of 
another several feet lower, and sometimes, at least, after a short distance, 
as suddenly resume or jump back to their former place or horizontal level. 
The strata are frequently also falsely bedded, and are oftentimes cut up by 
vertical parallel planes of division running in the general directions of the 
faults. 

As stated, there are supposed to be 53 searas of coal in the Warrior 
Coal Field. These seams vary in thickness from a few inches to 14 feet. 
There are twenty five of them of workable thickness, or that contain 18 
inches and over, each, in thickness of pure coal. Of these 25 seams, 14 
have 2 feet 6 inches and over, each, in thickness of clean coal ; of these 14 
seams, 9 have over 4 feet, each, in thickness of coal, and of these 9 seams, 
3 have more than 6 feet, each, in thickness of coal. These coal seams, in 
their out-crops, are thinner on the north-west side of the field than they are 
near the center and south-east side. This is doubtless due to the fact that 
the north-west side of the field is near the north-west edge of the original 
coal basin of Alabama, whereas the present south-east limits of the field, 
the Anticlinal Valley, ran through the central portion of the original coal 
basin of Alabama, and were thrown up and washed out as limits after the 
coals had been deposited. 

It has been estimated that, if these coal seams will but hold through- 
out their entire extent a thickness equivalent to that of their most reliable 
and accurate measurements, the Warrior Coal Field will contain a sum total 
of coal of not less than 113,119,000,000 tons, of which amount 108,394,- 
■000,000 tons would be of the workable seams, or of the seams which 



28 Jefferson County. 

contain i8 inches and over, each, in thickness of clean coal. There is 
great significance attached to these figures ; they tell us that the coal in 
the workable seams of the Warrior Field is three times the estimated 
available bituminous and semi-bituminous coals of the great coal-producing 
State of Pennsylvania, and that, if this coal was spread out evenly over 
the surface, it would cover the whole State of Alabama (52,250 square 
miles in extent) over two feet in thickness, and that, at the present rate 
of consumption of coals of all kinds, it would last the whole world over 
270 years. This workable coal, at the mouths of the mines, would be 
worth now about $ 150,000,000,00x3, of which at least 130,000,000,000 is 
profit. This profit money is nearly two hundred times the present total 
assessed value of property in Alabama, and would about buy every foot of 
territory in the State at $900 per acre. 

Of the fifty-three coal seams of the Warrior Field, forty-five are 
included in the Coal Measures of Jefferson County. These forty-five coal 
seams vary in thickness from a few inches to fourteen feet, and contain a 
combined average thickness of about one hundred feet of coal. Of these 
forty-five coal seams, nineteen have each an average thickness of two feet 
and over of clean coal, with an average combined thickness of about sev- 
enty feet of clean coal; of these nineteen seams, twelve have each an 
average thickness of three feet and over, and an average combined thickness 
of nearly fifty-three feet of clean coal ; of these twelve seams, eight have 
each an average thickness of four feet, and over, of clean coal, with an 
average combined thickness of over forty feet of clean coal, and of these 
eight seams, there are three seams that have each an average thickness 
of five feet, and over, of clean coal, and an average combined thickness of 
over twenty-five feet of clean coal. 

A better idea can be given of tl/e thickness, position, etc., of these 
different coal seams, and of the other strata of the Coal Measures of the 
Warrior Field in Jefferson County by a section than perhaps can be given 
in any other way. The reader is therefore respectfully referred to the 
following general section. 

Nothing more than an approximation is claimed for this section, 
though, so far as the coal seams are concerned, it is believed to be a 
close approximation. Much credit is due to a section by Mr. T. H. 
Aldrich, and one by Mr. Howard Douglass, for aid received in the 
making out of this general section. 



Its Topography, Geology, and Natural Resources. 29 



A General Section of the Strata above Drainage Level of the Coal Measures 
of the Warrior Field in Jefferson County. 

Sandstones, shales ; surface rocks along the south- 
west county line. 

(45) Coal i ft. 7 

Sandstones, shales 20 ft. to 35 ft. o 

(44) Coal 8 in to o ft. 10 

Shales, sandstones 10 ft. to 30 ft. O 

(43) Coal: University Seam . . . . 2 ft. to 5 ft. o 

Sandstones, shales 1 5 ft. o 

(42) Coal, slate ; in alternate streaks . . . i ft. 4 

Sandstones, shales 20 ft. to 25 ft. O 

(41) Coal 9 in. to i ft. 3 

Sandstones, shales, about 1 5 ft. o 

(40) Coal i ft. 8 in. to i ft. 9 

Sandstones, shales . . 25 ft. o 

(39) Coal 5 in. to i ft. 6 

Conglomerates, sandstones 34 ft. o 

rCoAL . . . ; I ft. 2 

(38) I Fire clay 5 in. to 5 ft. o 

i Coal i ft. o 

Fire clay ; fossiliferous 3 ft o 

Sandstones, shales 8 ft. to 10 ft. o 

(37) Coal 2 in. to o ft. 9 

Sandstones, shales 30 ft. to 35 ft. o 

(36) Coal 8 

Shales, sandstones . . .. 80 ft to 8$ ft. o 

(35) Coal; with a 3 in. slate parting . . . . i ft. 3 

Fire clay ; very fossiliferous 3 ft. o 

Shales, sandstones 40 ft. o 

(34) Coal o to i ft. 2 

Shales, about 40 ft. o 

(33) Coal ; Pratt Seam 2 ft. to 7 ft. o 

Fire clay 2 ft. to 10 ft. o 

Sandstones, shales, clays . . 20 ft. to 30 ft. o 

(32) Coal; fire clay seam . . . 1 ft. 4 in. to 2 ft. 6 

Fire clay i ft. to i ft. 6 

Conglomerates, sandstones, shales, 25 ft. to 40 ft. 



30 



Jefferson Co::nty. 



(28) 



(27) 
(26) 

(25) 
(24) 

(23) 
(22) 



f Coal . . . . i ft. to 2 ft. o in. ) 3 
Clay slate . . 6 in. to 7 ft. 3 in. g 
f,i J Co.AL . . . . I ft. to 2 ft. 8 in. I S 2 ft. 6 in. to 
Vj'm / -j; 17 ft 2 in 

I Clay slate . . . O to i ft. 9 in. 5 

I Co.'iL o to 3 ft. 6 in. •" 

Sandstones, shales 25 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

(30) Co.\L : with slate partings . . . 10 in. 8 ft. c in. 

P'ire clay 2 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales ; with black band 

and clay iron stone . . . 10 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

Conglomerates o to 6 ft. o in. 

(29) Coal ; with a thin slate parting' . . o to i ft. O in. 
Shales, sandstones, Limestones, 50 ft. to 300 ft. o in. 

Conglomer.vtes o to 7 ft. o in. 

Sandstones 10 ft. o in. 

' Coal ; with slate partings, '\ 

2 ft. 4 in. to 9 ft. 6 in. I 
Sandstones, shales, clays, ] § 2 ft. 4 in. to 

O to 12 ft. O in, I g 27 ft. 6 in. 
Coal ; with slate partings, 

O to 6 ft. O in. J 

Fire clay 3 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales 20 ft. o in. 

Coal o to 2 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales ... . 10 ft. to 50 ft. O in. 
Coal; with slate partings . . . . o to 8 ft. o in. 
Sandstones, Conglomer.\tes, shales, slate, 

25 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

CoAi o to o ft. 2 in. 

Sandstones; with thin seams of coal . 20 ft. O in. 

Coal 4 in. to i ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales 25 ft. to 30 ft. o in. 

Coal; Baker's Upper Bed . . 10 in. to 2 ft. o in. 
Shales, sandstones, fire clay . 20 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 
Coal; Baker's Lower Bed, Freel's Seam, 

2 ft. to 6 ft. o in. 

Shales, sandstones 20 ft. to 40 ft. o in. 

Black Band o to 2 ft. o in. 

Shales, sandstones 5 ft. to 20 ft. o in. 



Its Topography, Geology, a7id Natural Resources. 

(21) Coal; with slate and clay parting. Newcastle, 

Mt. Carmel, Townley, Jaggers, etc. 

5 ft. O in. to 14 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales ; with kidney ore, 

15 ft. to 60 ft. O in. 

(20) Co.^l; poor, slaty 10 in. to 3 ft. O in. 

Fire clay, i ft. to 3 ft. O in. 

Sandstones, shales 10 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

(19) Coal trace to 2 ft. 6 in. 

Shales, sandstones 15 ft. to 25 ft. o in. 

Black Band o to 1 ft. 4 in. 

Sandstones, shales 15 ft. to 25 ft. o in. 

f Coal ; soft . . . . o to 2 ft. 9 in. 1 

, „, Fire clay ... . o to i ft. o in. . ^ . 

(18) <^ r^, , r . oto 21 ft. 6 in. 

^ ' Shales O to 12 ft. O m. 

I Coal o to 4 ft. 9 in. J 

Shales, sandstones 20 ft. to 25 ft. o in. 

Conglomerates 16 ft. to 40 ft. o in. 

Slate O to I ft. O in. 

(17) Co.\L ; bony i ft. to 3 ft. O in. 

Fire clay o to 2 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales; with some streaks of coal, 

25 ft. to 125 ft. Gin. 

(16) Coal ; peacock luster . . . . 4 in. to I ft. 4 in. 

Sandstones, shales 30 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

f Coal ; with thin slate parting, ^ 

2 ft. to 4 ft. o in. \ "-^ 

/N I Sandstones . . to 9 ft. o in. [ ^ 2 ft. to 19 ft. 

^ ' * CoAi o to I ft. 6 in. I 2 2 in. 

Sandstones . . . oto 4 ft. O in. .3 

^ Coal ; very good, o to o ft. 9 in. J 

Fire clay 3 ft. O in. 

Sandstones, shales 20 ft. to 50 ft. O in. 

(14) Coal; Black Creek Seam . 2 ft. 4 in. to 6 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales, Limestones, 

50 ft. to 140 ft. o in. 

( 1 3) Coal o to i ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales, with perhaps some coal 

streaks 60 ft. to 225 ft. O in. 



32 



Jefferson Comity. 



(12) 



(II) 



(lO) 

(9) 

(8) 

(7) 
(6) 
(S) 
(4) 

(3) 

(2) 
(0 



° 3 ft. lo in. 
c/j to 39 ft. 8 in. 



Co.\L I ft. to I ft. 2 in. 

Sandstones, shales . . . . 30 ft. to 125 ft. O in. 
Black Band. The black band' 
in places becomes coal, 
3 in. to 4 ft. o in. 
Shale ; hard fossiliferous, 

O to 18 ft. o in. 

Coal i ft. o in. 

Shale ... 3 in. to 17 ft. o in. 

^CoAL 2 ft. 4 in. 

Fire clay 4 ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales 16 ft. to 20 ft. O in. 

Coal i ft. 8 in. to 2 ft. 4 in. 

Sandstones, shales 7 ft. 6 in. 

Coal ; Naber's Seam 2 ft. 2 in. 

Fire clay 6 ft. 10 in. 

Shales, sandstones 295 ft. o in. 

Coal i ft. 6 in. 

Fire clay i ft. o in. 

Sandstones, shales 16 ft. o in. 

Coal i ft. 4 in. 

Shales ; with fossil coal plants . . . . 1 2 ft. o in. 

Coal; good 2 ft. 6 in. 

Sandstones, shales 500 ft. O in. 

Coal 6 in. 

Shales, sandstones 35 ft. o in. 

Coal i ft. o in. 

Shales ; about 5 ft. O in. 

Conglomerates ; Upper Conglomerate of 

Tennessee 30 ft. to 50 ft. o in. 

Coal i ft. o in. 

Shales, sandstones 50 ft. o in. 

Conglomerate ; Millstone Grit, 

Lower Conglomerate of Tennessee, etc. 

40 ft. to 75 ft. O in. 

Coal ; about 1 ft. o in. 

Shales; fossiliferous ... . 3 ft. to 10 ft. o in. 

Coal; slaty 10 in. 

Shales, sandstones 30 ft. to 35 ft. o in. 

Sub-carboniferous Strata. 



Its Topography, Geology, and Natural Resources. 33 

In this county, the coals of the above section cover about the follow- 
ing areas: From (i) to (12), inclusive, 575 square miles; from (13) to 
(16), inclusive, 515 square miles; from (17) to (25), inclusive, 440 square 
miles; from (26) to (28), inclusive, 385 square miles; from (29) to (35), 
inclusive, 180 square miles, and from (36) to (45), inclusive, 30 square 
miles. This data, allowing 1,000,000 tons of coal to the square mile for 
every foot in thickness, gives 26,865,000,000 tons as the sum total of the 
clean coal contained in the seams two feet and over in thickness in the 
Warrior Field in this county. At the present rate, 1,400,000 tons per 
annum, of mining this workable coal in this county, it will take over 1900 
years to exhaust the clean coal of the seams that are two feet and over in 
thickness. Much of this coal, however, will never be mined, from the 
fact that it is at too great a depth below the surface ; though more than 
one-fourth of it, or about 7,000,000,000 tons, is within 300 feet of the 
surface, and can be mined cheaply by drifts and slopes. The above clean 
coal, of this county, of the seams that are two feet and over in thickness, 
would be worth now, at the mouths of the mines, about §57,947,000,000, 
of which sum about §7,589,000,000 would be profit. 

These coals are all bituminous coals, and, as a class, are better than 
the average bituminous coals. They are of almost every variety : some 
of them are bright and hard, and are well adapted to handling and stock- 
ing, while others are of a duller color, and of a softer or more friable and 
crumbly nature ; some of them seem to be peculiarly fitted for coking, 
for iron-ore smelting, and for foundry and blacksmithing purposes, while 
others do not coke at all, but are excellent heating and steaming coals. 
They all burn freely, and most of them are well suited for making gas. 
Some of them have a vertical flaggy structure, or a regular face and butt 
structure, while others are divided up by joints into cubical and rhom- 
boidal blocks, and others still are devoid of any regular forms or are solid 
and compact throughout. Some of them on being exposed to the 
weather quickly crumble, while others, to the naked eye, are not effected 
for years. Many of them contain considerable mineral charcoal, princi- 
pally in thin sheets along the planes of stratification, and some of them 
are very pure coals or contain a large percentage of fixed carbon with but 
very little ash and clinker, while others are bony and slaty. Some of 
them, however, look slaty when they are not ; the dull luster being due 
to the casts of plants along the seams of division or stratification. The 
most of these coals have been judged of solely from their exposed out- 
crops, and it is a well known fact that all bituminous coals deteriorate, or 
lose in their gas-giving and heating qualities on weathering, though they 
3 



34 



Jefferson County. 



retain their forms and to all appearances are not effected ; hence it is very 
likely that most of them have been underestimated. 

The following analyses of freshly mined and average samples will 
serve to show the quality of these coals : 



Name of Coal Seivui. 



Specific Gravity 
Sulphur 

Moisniri' 

Volatile Matter, 
Fixed Carbon . . 
Ash 



Pratt. 



1.200 
1.041 

l.OL'.i 
32.1t;9 
63.370 

3.3-12 



New 

Castlo 



XA 

.SO 
28.24 
59.69 
10.02 



Black 
Creek. 



.10 

.12 

26.11 

71.64 

2.03 



AVatt or Warrior. 
Jefferson or Pierce.. 



1.112 

1.611 
33.004 
61. 7S") 

2.4S.S 



32.24 
65.12 

1.27 



These seams occur in the upper, middle, and lower part of the meas- 
ures, as may be seen from an inspection of the General Section. 

Chemical analyses will show the compositions of coals, but will not 
show how they are put together, and as their true values and fitness for 
certain purposes are largely dependent on their mechanical make-up or 
physical structure, the best tests of their worth are actual experiments and 
uses on a large scale, and hence the following table is appended to show 
the standing of some Alabama coals, as compared with well known 
coals of other States for heating or steaming purposes : 



Name of 
Coal. 



Cumberlanil . 
Pratt 



Fouiuls of water 

evaporated from and 

at 212° per lb. of 

coal. 



.8.21. 
.8.04. 



Percent, of non- 
combustible from 
combustion under 
boiler. 



.11.. 



Relative heatiu.t; or 

steaming values. 

Cumberland, Md. 

being 100. 



.100.0. 



Jellico 7.45 ! 6.3 : 90.7. 

Pittsbur!:; ! 7.63 7.4 j 92.0. 

Altmont : 7.41 I S.-'i | 90.:'.. 

St. Bernanl ' 6.73 1 6.0 1 82 0. 

Warrior i 7.73 ! 4.6 1 94.2. 

Helena i 7.58 ' 7.7 ! 92.:;. 

Watt 7.11 t 13.2 j 86.6. 

Diamond i 6.20 1 10.2 ! 75.."> . 

Mud EivL-r ! 6.89 4.6 ; 8:!.0 . 

Memphis [ 6.4.5 i 8.5 ' 7S.ii. 

Clifton ' 5.74 14.6 60.0. 



Sewaneu | 7.37. 

Cahaba 1 7.6.5. 

Blocton j 7.37. 

Black Cri.L 7.(i3. 

Henry Ell'n 7.25. 

Daisy ' 7.16. 



.11.;?. 



89..S. 



5.0. , 
5.7. 
4.0. 



9;?.2. 
80.S. 
92.0. 



. 5.2. 
.11.4. 



88.3. 
87.2. 



Name of 
State. 



Maryland. 

Alabama. 

Tennessee. 

Pennsylvania. 

Kentucky. 

Kentucky. 

Alabama. 

Alabama. 

Alabama. 

Kentucky. 

Illinois. 

Kentucky. 

Kentucky. 

Tennessee. 

Alabama. 

Alabama. 

Alabama. 

Alabama. 

Tennessee. 



The above table is an abstract of the results of tests made by Prof. 



Its Topography, Geology, and A^atiiral Reso?cncs. 35 

O. H. Landreth, at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, between 
March I2th and May 22nd, 1885, In these tests ten tons of coal from 
each mine were used, and in case of the Alabama coals we have been 
told that some of them, at least, were not picked coals or were not 
intended for this purpose, but were taken from their regular marl<etable 
screened products. These tests show up the Alabama coals in a most 
favorable light, and demonstrate that one-half of the eight tested were 
excelled for steaming purposes by only the Cumberland coal, and that the 
lowest Alabama coal on the graded list was superior for these purposes 
to several of the coals brought from other States. Four of these Alabama 
coals, those in italics, namely : the Pratt, the Warrior, the Watt, and the 
Black Creek, were from the Warrior Field, in this county ; the other four 
were from the Cahaba Field. The analyses of these four coals of the 
Warrior field have already been given. 

The coals of the Warrior Field have a great advantage over the coals 
of many other fields in the ease and cheapness with which they can 
be mined. In the case of this field, the physical features of the measures, 
the small angle of dip, the structure of the coals, and the solid roofs and 
soft underbeds are all conducive to cheap mining. The only drawback 
that any of these coals have to cheap mining is that the thicker seams 
always have thin interstratified partings of slate and clay that can not be 
mined out cleanly, and hence, to make the coals of these thick seams val- 
uable, the additional expense of crushing and washing will have to be 
resorted to. The physical features of the Warrior Field will enable good 
workable seams of coal to be reached in nearly all parts of the productive 
measures at moderate depths below the surface or by drifts and slopes. 
The small angle of dip enables the mines either to drain themselves, or 
to be kept dry at comparatively small cost. The face and butt structure, 
and the joint structure of these coals, enable them to be mined advanta- 
geously and in large lumps. The hard, solid roofs save the great expense 
of propping, and the soft underbeds permit of the coals being easily 
undermined. 

The coals of the Warrior Field, as a whole, as well as those of Jeffer- 
son County, will, in a few years, be highly blessed with great competition in 
transportation lines or with exceedingly cheap transportation. Now, the 
L. & N. R. R. crosses this field on the east, the A. G. S. R. R. bounds it on 
the south-east, while the Ga. P. R. R. , that will soon be completed, penetrates 
it on the east and west, and the S. & B. R. R. and M. & B. R. R., that are 
now being built, will bisect it respectively from the north and the west. 
Besides the above several other railroad lines have been surveyed to 



36 Jefferso7i County. 

Birmingham, and doubtless cars will be running over them in a few 
years. 

Far better than all of these railroads, this field and this county have, 
winding through their most productive areas for miles, a river that can be 
made navigable for steam tugs and coal barges all the year round, with 
a minimum channel, at extreme low water, of eighty feet wide by four 
feet deep, for the sum of from $400,000 to ^1,200,000, according to the 
nature of the work. Congress has already made a large appropriation 
for the opening of this river, and will doubtless continue in this good 
work until a water-way is opened to the sea for the cheap coal of the 
Warrior Field. 

The coals of this county, as they have been and are still the most con- 
venient to lines of transportation, have been and are still the most exten- 
sively worked of the coals of the Warrior Field. They furnished in 1874 
only 33, 139 tons of coal ; now there are in operation in them about thir- 
teen mines that have daily outputs of from 100 to 2, 600 tons of coal, and 
three or four mines that have daily outputs of from ten to twenty-five 
tons, making in all a daily output of about 4,500 tons of coal for the 
mines of the Warrior Field in Jefferson County. This coal is used princi- 
pally for iron-ore smelting, and for heating and steaming purposes around 
Birmingham, and on the railroads which run through Birmingham, though 
some of it is shipped to the larger cities of the South for miscellaneous 
purposes. 



PART III. 

Of the Cahaba Coal Field. 

Physical Features — Coal Measures : Thickness of its Strata, and Number ajid 
Thickness of its Coal Seams ; the Quantity, Quality, and Value of its 
Coals, and their Transporting Facilities — Coal Mining in Alabama ; 
Location and Output of the Mines — The Coke Industiy in Alabama ; its 
Qua?itity, Quality, and Consumption — Other Natural Resources of the 
ll^arrior and Cahaba Coal Fields. 

Part III is now taken up, out of its regular order, because it also treats 
of the coals or is of the same geological formation as Part I. 

The Cahaba Coal Field comprises about 435 square miles. Not one- 
third of this area, or only 130 square miles of it, however, is in Jefferson 
County : but as the greater part of it is or will soon be contributary to the 



Its Topography , Geology, and Nahtral Resources. t^"] 

prosperity of Jefferson County, a general description will be given here of 
the whole field. 

The Cahaba Coal Field must necessarily possess many characteristics 
in common with the Warrior Field, for, as has been seen, it was originally 
connected with the Warrior Field, or was of the same great basin, and all 
Coal Measures, especially those of the same field, are known to be every- 
where more or less alike. These two coal fields, however, are at present 
very different from each other in their topographical features and geologi- 
cal structure. This difference is due mainly to the fact that the Cahaba 
Field is more intimately connected with the results of the great Appala- 
chian revolution, or with the upheavals, fractures, etc., of the mountain- 
making epoch of that revolution, and hence it is more broken up, and its 
strata are more highly tilted than they are in the case of the Warrior Field. 
This Cahaba Coal Field, in fact, is simply the south-west terminus, so far as 
can be seen, of the folded and faulted strata that form the Appalachian 
chain, and extend from Canada to Central Alabama. This field is of an 
oblong shape, extending lengthwise with the anticlinal valleys. Its length 
is about seventy-five miles, and its greatest width, near its south-west end, 
is about twelve miles. Its limits are well defined ; it is bounded on the 
north and west by a ridge of Millstone Grit, and on the south and east by 
a great fault that brings up to a level with its highest measures. Lower Silu- 
rian rocks. As its south-east rim is not at all elevated, and as the pre- 
vailing dip of its strata over the whole field is toward the south-east rim, 
it is not a true trough-shape area like the Warrior Field, but is rather 
a nionoclinal basin. The actual dip, however, in a few localities of com- 
paratively small areas is to the north-west, from the presence of small 
folds in the strata that run up and down the field. The prevailing south- 
east dip increases constantly from the 6° to 8° of the Millstone Grit of the 
north-west boundary to 65° and 80°, and to even a perpendicularity, along 
the south-east edge or the great fault, where the Coal Measures are suddenly 
cut off and made to butt up against Lower Silurian rocks. As the prevail- 
ing dip is constant in its direction to the south-east, and as it is much 
greater than the inclination of the surface, the measures must of necessity 
be thickest along the south-east edge of the field or along the great fault. 
This field is still, for the most part, covered with its virgin forest of 
yellow pine, oak, and other valuable timber, and its surface is broken or is 
cut up by denudation into a series of valleys and ridges. The ridges, as 
a general thing, owe their existence to the out-croppings of hard, weather- 
resisting rocks, while the valleys have been cut down into the out-crops 
of the softer and more destructible strata. These ridges and valleys. 



38 Jefferson County. 

therefore, run in the general north-east and south-west direction of the 
out-crops of the tilted strata, or up and down the field. As the topo- 
graphical features, in a great measure, are dependent on the character of 
the underlying strata, they, too, are arranged in strips running in this 
same general direction to the length of the field. 

This field is admirably drained by the Cahaba River and its tribu- 
taries. The river conforms in its general direction to that of the field. 
The Cahaba Coal Field is small in comparison with the great Warrior Field, 
but it contains a vast amount of workable coal. Its measures are believed 
to be about as thick and to have as many coal seams, with as great a com- 
bined thickness of coal, as those of the Warrior Field. The coal seams of 
these two fields have never, as yet, been connected, but they will doubtless 
be in the course of time. The coal seams of the Cahaba Field, from their 
steeper dip, crop out in much more limited areas, and they have much less 
coal above drainage level than those of the Warrior Field. For many 
years there has been known to be in this field, at the least, twenty differ- 
ent seams of coal, with a combined thickness of between forty and fifty feet 
of coal. There is, however, as already stated, believed to be in this field 
more than twice this number of seams, and that they have a combined 
thickness of coal of over twice fifty feet. Twelve of the known twenty coal 
seams in this field are of workable thickness, or contain, each, an average 
thickness of two feet and over of clean coal, while others of them contain, 
each, eighteen inches and over in thickness of clean coal. The workable 
coal seams of this field, as reported, are of two groups that are separated 
by a great thickness of comparatively barren strata. The lower group 
has from seven to eight seams of coal from three to seven feet in thick- 
ness, and with a combined thickness of about thirty-five feet of workable 
coal. The upper group is known as the Montevallo Group. It occurs 
along the south-east edge of the field, and is said to cover a comparatively 
small area. It contains from three to four seams of coal of workable 
thickness that have an aggregate thickness of about twelve feet of coal. 

It has been estimated, after a most liberal discount for every imagin- 
able cause, that there are, at the least, 4,000,000,000 tons of coal in this 
field in the seams that are two feet six inches, and over, in thickness. 

These coals are usually of a bright and shiny luster, and are of a very 
fine quality. They seem to be especially drj', and to contain a small 
amount of ash, and a large percentage of fixed carbon. Some of them, 
from long use, are known to be good heating and steaming coals, while 
others make excellent coke, that is well suited for iron-ore smelting. 
Others of them are dry burning coals that do not coke, while others still 



Its TopograpJiy, Geology, and Natural Resources. 39 

are fat bituminous coals, and are good fuel and gas coals. They, as a class, 
appear to be cleaner and harder coals than those of the Warrior Field, 
but more faulty. Some of them seem to stand weathering finely, as they 
have remained lumpy, and burned freely after years of exposure to the 
sun and rain. 

The following three analyses will serve to show the quality of these 
coals : 





Helena. 


Cahaba. 


Montevallo. 




1.12 

2.54 

2<).44 

(itl.81 

1.21 


1.22 

1.66 

:».28 

03.04 

2.02 


1.35 




2.13 




27.03 




66.22 


Ash 


4.62 







The heating and steaming values of these coals may be seen on an 
examination of the table already given of the tests made by Prof. O. H. 
Landreth, at Vanderbilt University. 

The coals of this field are especially valuable from the fact that they 
are the most southern true coals in the United States, and, in common 
with the coals of the other fields in Alabama, are surrounded by iron ores 
and limestones in seemingly almost exhaustless quantities and of the 
best qualities. 

The Cahaba coals have one great drawback to cheap mining : namely, 
their steep dip. This dip is so great that the coals will have to be mined 
principally by shafts, and it will be expensive to keep the mines dry. 

The transportation facilities for the coals of this field are at present 
very good, but they will doubtless be rapidly increased. Besides being 
bound on the north and west by the A. G. S. R. R., this field is bisected 
from north to south by the L. & N. R. R. , crossed on the east by the 
Ga. P. R. R., touched on the south-east by the S. R. & D. R. R.,and 
will soon be cut in twain, lengthwise, by the M. & G. T. R. R. 

It has also, through its most productive area, a river that can be made 
navigable the year round for steam tugs and coal barges ; and, on the south 
and east, it has no elevated rim, and can be easily and cheaply penetrated 
by any number of railroads from those sides. 

For many years, in ante-railroad times in Alabama, and from many 
places, the coals of the Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields were raised in 
considerable quantities from the beds of the rivers, and the mouths of the 



40 Jefferson County, 

creeks along the rivers during low stages of the water, and floated down 
the rivers in flatboats during freshets. This business, however, was so 
perilous to both life and property that no considerable capital was ever 
invested in it, and no regular miners ever engaged in it. It was aban- 
doned on the advent of the central railroads through Alabama, and it was 
not until the year 1872, on the completion of the S. & N. Ala. R. R., 
that any coal seams were scientifically opened and worked in Jefferson 
County. Since 1872, coal mining in Alabama has grown most rapidly, or 
from an annual output of about 11,000 tons to about 2,225,000 tons 
in 1885, and from an investment of a few thousand dollars to that of 
about $3,000,000. The present mines are all near the present lines 
of transportation, and are on the out-crops of coal that are near the edges 
of the most productive areas. They include among them some of the 
richest, if not the richest, bituminous coal plants on the face of tl;ie globe. 
About six-sevenths of the coal that is now mined in Alabama is from the 
Warrior Field, and about seven-eighths of the rest is from the Cahaba Field. 
Of the output for the whole State, at least five-sixths of it is from Jef- 
ferson County, and four-fifths of it is consumed by the furnaces and rail- 
roads of the State. 

The miners of this coal are of many nationalities ; among them may be 
found Americans (principally natives), Germans, Irish, Welsh, English, 
Swedes, French, Scotch, Austrians, Swiss, Bavarians, and Africans (prin- 
cipally natives.) The outside help at the mines are chiefly Americans or 
native whites, while the miners, strictly speaking, are, for the most part, 
foreigners and native blacks. The native blacks make very good miners. 

The coals of these fields are of special value on account of their 
being almost surrounded by iron ores and limestones of the very best 
quality. They are particularly enhanced in value by the vast deposits of 
red and brown iron ores and limestones of the narrow Anticlinal Valley, or 
Part II, that separates these fields and which has along it, especially in 
Jefferson County, such a development and juxtaposition of the raw mate- 
rials for the smelting of iron ores, on a large scale, as is nowhere else to 
be seen. 

In keeping with the rapid growth of the coal production is the coke 
industry of this State. This industry, though less than eight years old, 
is now the next to the largest of the kind in the world. It increased 
from an output of 60,781 in 1880 to 304,509 tons in 1885. This coke is 
made chiefly from the coals of the Warrior Field, mainly the Pratt Seam, 
and is about all consumed in the State. It is, as a general thing, of 



Its Topography , Geology, a?:d Natural Resources. 41 

excellent quality for both iron-ore smelting and foundry uses. Its quality 
is indicated by the following analyses : 

(1) (2) 

Fixed carbon 93.86 93.01 

Ash 2.98 6.83 

Sulphur 61 .57 

Moisture 2.55 

No. 1 — Coke of the Warrior Seam. 
No. 2— Coke of the Pratt Seam. 

The Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields have other great natural 
resources than those of their coals. They have several seams of black 
band iron ore, considerable clay iron stotie, a vast amount of ^ood fire clay, 
inexhaustible quarries of the best of building and paving stojics, numerous 
localities of suitable materials for grindstones and millstones, many deposits 
of varying extent of alian, saltpeter, copperas, etc. , and a great variety and 
quantity of fine timber. 

l^hc black band iron ore or coaly carbonate of iron is in seams from a 
few inches to several feet in thickness. The ore from two of the seams 
has been tested in the furnace with favorable results when mixed with 
more siliceous ores. 

The clay iro7i stone occurs both as interstratified bands and as layers 
of nodules, balls and kidney shape concretions dispersed through the thick 
beds of shale. 

The fire clays are the underbeds to most of the coal seams. They 
are from a few inches to ten and twelve feet in thickness. They are 
nearly always carbonaceous and of a dark gray color. When thoroughly 
wet they are usually plastic and sticky. They have never been suffi- 
ciently tested, if at all, and are believed to be in many cases of the best 
material. They are frequently full of the fossil plant, Stigmaria. 

The building stones are of a good variety and durability. Some of 
them work with equal ease in any direction, while others split into thin, 
tough sheets. 

The flaggino and paving stones are of all degrees of thickness and 
are of great uniformity. They have perfectly smooth and beautifully 
rippled marked sides, and need only to be squared to be ready for their 
many uses. These flagging and paving stones, from their great regu- 
larity in thickness, etc., in certain localities, have been caWed plank rocks, 
and the thinner of them, as seen in the faces of quarries and bluffs, fre- 
quently look like planks piled up one on another. Grindstones could be 
easily and cheaply made from the above flagging and paving stones. 



Jefferson Coimty. 

which frequently are of very good grit for ordinary edge tools, oftentimes 
better than that of the grindstones which are imported to this country 
from a great distance. 

Millstones. — The Millstone Grit oi these coal fields, as it name implies, 
is well suited for millstones, and is used for this purpose, more or less, 
wherever it abounds. There are other conglomerates and sandstones of 
these coal fields that could be worked up into good millstones. 

Alum, saltpeter, copperas, etc., are found as efflorescences, incrustations, 
and earthy deposits in the rock houses and other sheltered places of these 
coal fields. They owe their origin principally to the weathering or disin- 
tegration of pyrites. 

The timber is mainly of long and short leaf pines, oaks, gums, hick- 
ories, beech, poplar, cypress, etc. The long-leaf pine, over certain sec- 
tions of these coal fields, will yield from 15,000 to 20,000 feet of good, 
merchantable lumber to the acre. The other growth, especially in the 
hollows and ravines and along the water courses, is of fine size. 

The Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields also have along their streams 
some of the grandest and most picturesque of scenery, and innumerable 
sites of narrow channels, with rocky bottoms and sides, for the erection 
of machinery of any magnitude up to that of loo-horse power and more. 



PART II. 
Of the Anticlinal Valley. 

General Description — General Section — Structure and Complications — Silurian 
Rocks and Iron Ores — The Clintoti Group and its Exhaustless Red Iron 
Ore — The Knox Dolomite and its Vast Deposits of Brown hvn Ore. 

This valley or middle division completely separates the other two, 
and is a striking feature in the topography of this State and County. Its 
narrowness from coal field to coal field, its abundance of red and brown 
iron ores, its inexhaustible quantity of the best of limestones for fluxing 
purposes, for lime, etc., its numerous beautiful and bold, big springs and 
limpid streams of perpetual flow, and its great natural advantages as the 
most important highway or line of communication between the busy 
marts of the north-east and the south-west, all tend to make it of the great- 
est interest to the geologist and the engineer, and to the manufacturer 



Its Topography, Geology, ajid Natural Resources. 43 

and agriculturist, and will make it the richest and densest populated sec- 
tion of Alabama. 

This valley is one of the outliers of the great Coosa Valley, or is one of 
the valleys of the Appalachian chain, near its south-western terminus. It 
therefore partakes of the characters of those Anticlinal Valleys, or is made 
up of folded and faulted strata, and, like those valleys, its greatest peculiar- 
ity is that it was once a mountain. It is due entirely to erosion, though its 
present features have been highly influenced by the geological strata. Like 
its parent stem, the Coosa Valley, it may be described as a complex valley, 
fluted with smaller valleys and ridges. These smaller valleys and ridges, 
as well as the soils and growth, have a strict relationship with the geo- 
logical structure of the main valley. This is especially noticeable in the 
case of the soils, and is exemplified in the barren ridges of hornstone or 
chert running along parallel to and with the fertile limestone valleys at 
their base. 

The edges of this valley are well defined by ridges of Millstone Grit 
or the heavy beds of conglomerates and sandstones near the base of the 
Coal Measures. It is something over 100 miles long, and as a whole is 
known as Lottg Valley. Different portions of it, however, have received 
different names ; the upper or northeastern portion is called Murphree's 
Valley; the middle, Jones Valley, and the lower or south-west end, 
Roupe Valley. The floor of this valley for nearly its whole length is 
higher than the mountainous country on each side of its raised edges, and 
it presents the anomaly of a valley that is a water divide in a mountainous 
country. 

The relative altitude of this valley is shown from the fact that, though 
it is bounded on the right and left by tall ridges of Millstone Grit, not one 
of its streams flows along it for any considerable distance before forcing 
its way through the rocky barriers into the Coal Measures or mountainous 
country on one side or the other. It divides the waters of the Warrior 
and Cahaba Rivers, and hence separates the Warrior and Cahaba Coal 
Fields. 

This valley rarely exceeds three to four miles in width, though at the 
juncture of the Murphree and Jones Valleys it is about twelve miles 
wide. Nearly one-half of its length and about 200 square miles of its area 
are embraced in this county. This county includes the middle portion of 
it or the whole of Jones Valley and a part of Roupe Valley. The portion 
in this county is a single anticlinal that is much folded and faulted along 



44 Jefferson Coimfy. 

its north-west side. The following is a general section of the geological 
formations of this valley: 



Coal Measures ; rims of Millstone Grit of 

CARBONiFEROrs \ the Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields 

. on each side of the valley. 



!i 

CI ,^ / Ui/per, Calcareous ; Mountain Limestone. } -Ann 

Sub-Carboniferous.. [ ^^^^^; g-^-^^^^^^ . 'g^_ ^^„ .^ „„^ ^..^^^,^^. \ m ft. 



Devonian. 



f Black Shale ; unknown thickness, out- 

t crop usually covered up, not ovr. . 50 ft. 

Upper Silurian .... -I Clinton or Red Mountan (xrw,, 400 ft. 

1 Trenton and Chazij 400 ft. 

Lower Siluria x \ n ,^>^^ 1 Knox l)olor:> i:: 1 ,200 ft. 

j ^"-("(^^ \ Knox Shah 

In the simplest possible form of this valley, or when it is a simple regular 
Anticlinal Valley, the Knox Dolomite and Shale, or oldest rocks, occupy the 
center of the valley, and the others occur in regular succession, as given 
above, to the north-west and south-east of them. The south-east side or 
half of the valley is usually, if not always, of this simple form, and shows 
the above formations in almost unbroken continuity from one end of the 
valley to the other, but the opposite side or the north-west half of the 
valley is not so simple in its geological structure, and but seldom, if ever, 
exhibits the above simple form. On the south-east side or half of the 
valley the strata have a regular dip to the south-east ; but on the north- 
west side or half it is the exception to find them dipping to the north- 
west, as they should be if this valley was of a simple regular anticlinal 
fold. On this north-west side or half the most common state of things is 
to find an inversion of the strata, or to find them so lapped together and 
so bent over to the north-west that their proper dip to the north-west is 
reversed to one to the south-east, and the newer rocks are thrown to the 
bottom or under the older ones. This north-west side or half is also most 
frequently complicated by faults, which run rather up and down the 
valley. These faults in some instances have doubled some of the strata, 
and in others have left out or engulfed some of them. This doubling of 
the strata, so far as has been observed, is confined principally to the Clin- 
ton, Black Shale and Sub-carboniferous formations, though occasionally it 
has included the Trenton and upper Chazy rocks. The above faults along 
the north-west edge of the valley have frequently pushed up and over the 
Lower Silurian rocks or the Knox Dolomite until they are in contact with 
the Coal Measures ; for this to be the case there has been a vertical dis- 
placement of the strata of not less than 1,500 feet, and in some cases a 
great deal more. Of the formations of this valley, the Upper and Lower 



Its Topography, Geology, and Natural Resources. 45 

Silurian are of special interest and importance on account of their econom- 
ical or mineral worth. These Silurian rocks are the repository of the great- 
est accumulations of iron ores in Alabama or perhaps in the world. They 
occur in the anticlinal valleys of the Appalachian chain from Canada to 
Central Alabama, but nowhere along this whole line do they possess 
such a development of hematite and Hmonite, or of red and brown iron 
ores, as near their south-west terminus in Alabama, and especially in Jef- 
ferson County. These vast deposits of red and brown iron ores are 
respectively of the Clinton Group of the Upper Silurian formation and the 
Sub-group Knox Dolomite of the Lower Silurian formation. 

I. Clinton Group. — These rocks consist principally of yellowish, brown- 
ish, and white standstones and shales with inter-stratifted seams of hema- 
tite or red-iron ore. They are of a most persistent character, and are 
closely associated with the Sub-carboniferous rocks. They, with the 
cherty beds of the lower Sub-carboniferous rocks, form well-defined ridges 
which run up and down the Anticlinal Valley, on each side, parallel to but 
somewhat lower than the bordering ridges of the Millstone Grit of the Coal 
Measures. These ridges of Clinton rocks are not always continuous or 
prominent, but they sometimes sink to the general level of the country to 
again rise to what is known in Alabama as mountains; in other words, 
they are rather a range of long, high hills in a line on each side of the 
valley, parallel to the ridges of Millstone Grit or edges of the valley. Those 
in this county, near Birmingham, received years ago the local name of 
Red Mountain, from their seams of ever-present red ore. This name, Red 
Mountain, has now become so extensive that it is applied not only to all 
the mountains and ridges in Alabama that contain this red ore, but also 
to the geological group of rocks of which it is a part. The Red Mou?itai?i 
group of Alabama is therefore synonymous with the Clinton group of 
New York and the Dyestone group of Tennessee. The iron ore of these 
rocks is known as hematite, red-iron ore, red hematite, specidar ore, fossilifer- 
ousnron ore, lentieular ore, Clinton ore, Dyestone ore, and red oclve. When 
pure it has nearly 70 per cent, of metallic iron. It is of very great inter- 
est and value to Alabama, and especially to Jefferson County, on account 
of its quantity, quality, and position. It is highly esteemed as an iron ore 
by the iron manufacturers, and is now being extensively used. It is the 
main dependence of the blast furnaces of Alabama. It is by far the 
greatest iron ore deposit in the State, and is seemingly almost inexhaust- 
ible. It occurs in seams or is regularly stratified. These seams, from 
their very nature and position, would appear to extend down and spread 
•out indefinitely. In this county there are three of these seams of ore 



46 Jefferson Coimiy. 

within 150 feet of strata, though the seams are usually only from fifteen 
feet to twenty-five feet apart. Their outcrops are parallel, and are indica- 
ted by a red soil and by ferruginous fragments scattered over the surface. 
These seams of ore should occur on both sides of the Anticlinal Valley 
when not engulfed in faults, and they are frequently duplicated on the 
north-west side by faults, so that, if the outcrops in this county were 
stretched out in a single straight line, they would doubtless reach near 
200 miles. The combined thickness of the three seams in this county, it 
is believed, would average twenty-five feet. The quality of the ore is 
different in the different seams, and frequently from outcrop to outcrop in 
the same seam. This quality, however, as a general thing is good, and, 
in places, it is superior in richness to the brozvn ore. It is usually richest 
on the surface ; seemingly having been leached, as it generally becomes 
more and more calcareous downward. Doubtless the composition of each 
scam is constant beyond its line of weathering. It is oolitic in structure ; 
consisting of glazed grains of various sizes, flattened and cemented together 
as if by pressure. It is frequently porous on the outcrop. Its impurities 
consist principally of siliceous matter, usually in rounded grains, and of 
carbonate of lime, and occasionally of a little argillaceous matter. The 
carbonate of lime, when present in considerable quantities, causes the ore 
to effervesce freely on the addition of acids. When this carbonate of 
lime is constant, and not in too large quantities, its presence in the ore is 
no serious objection, but is rather an advantage, since it may be made to 
take the part of a flux. The argillaceous matter is never in large enough 
quantities to require the washing of the ore. This ore is of a brownish 
and bright red color ; on a fresh surface it is shiny, but has no metallic 
luster. It is friable and readily soils the hands. If the outcrops of this 
ore in Jefferson County formed a seam only forty miles long, that had an 
available thickness of ore of only ten feet, and if this ore contained an 
average of only 40 per cent, of metallic iron and had a specific gravity of 
only 3, all the way down, it would still give to Jefferson County for every 
foot of descent into it nearly 56,000 tons of metallic iron. The data of 
the above supposition are known to be far within the real state of things ; 
for in this county the outcrops of each of the three seams on the south- 
east side of the valley alone must be near 75 miles in length, and one of 
them, in places at least, is over fifteen feet in thickness ; the ore, too, fre- 
quently has as much as 50 per cent, of metallic iron and a specific gravity 
of 4. The iron made from this ore is of a hard, brittle character, that is 
well suited for castings ; its quality is improved by mixing with this red 
ore a little broivii ore. 



Its Topography, Geology^ a?id Natural Resources. 47 

The following analyses will serve to show the quality of the red ores 
that are now supplying the furnaces of this county : 

(1) 12) 

Ferric oxicie 73.930 90.271 

Silica 19.680 O.3S0 

Alumina 2.710 2.460 

Lime 523 .220 

Magnt-sia 192 .230 

Phosphoric anliydriile 371 .090 

Sulphuric anhydride 028 trace. 

Manganese oxide 390 

Zinc oxide .070 

Baryta .080 

Water and loss 1.438 .199 

100.000 100.000 

Metallic iron 51.500 63.190 

Phosphorus 162 .040 

Sulphur Oil trace 

Manganese 025 

jVo. 1. — Alice Furnace Company Red Mountain Ore. 

Anali/st : Alfred F. Brainerd, Birmingham, Ala. 
jVb. 2. — Sloss Furnace Company Red Mountain Ore. 

Analyst : Alfred F. Brainerd, Birmingham, Ala. 

This group of rocks, besides its vast deposit of red iron ore, is rich, 
in flagging or paving stones. These flagging stones are of the very best 
quality ; they are hard, and of uniform thickness, with perfectly smooth 
and beautifully-rippled marked sides. They do not absorb water, and do 
not peel off on weathering. They are now being extensively used in Bir- 
mingham as curbing and paving stones. Many of these flagging stones 
would make excellent grindstones for common edge tools. 

2. Knox Dolomite. — The rocks of this sub-group generally form the 
central and larger portion of the valley. In the upper part they are 
rough, cherty dolomites, and in the lower part they are pure limestones 
and dolomites. The upper of these rocks on weathering sometimes leave 
the very finest specimens of concretionary chert, and the lower ones will 
furnish fine building stones for handsome structures, good lime, and some- 
times an inferior quality of hydraulic cement. 

On each side of this central area are usually found belts of limestone, 
more or less pure, of the Chazy and Trenton ages; the latter often quite 
pure and excellent for the manufacture of lime. In many places, as, for 
instance, from Birmingham south-westward to Jonesboro and below, the 
central parts of the valley are formed by the thin-bedded limestones of 



Jefferso7i County. 

the underlying Knox Shale Sub-group. These rocks usually crop out in 
parallel and rough ledges — running sometimes for great distances — and 
are usually very highly inclined, and in some cases nearly vertical. These 
limestone ledges are commonly interbedded with clayey strata, and the 
soils resulting from their disintegration are calcareous and clayey, and, 
inasmuch as the areas of the Knox Shale are usually quite level, they are 
known as "Flatwoods." 

The flatwoods are generally badly drained, and the soils are cold and 
unproductive, although not deficient in the elements of plant food. 

With the increase and decrease of the Knox Dolomite Sub- 
group as surface rocks, the limonite ore deposits of the valley 
also increase and decrease, showing most conclusively that there 
must be an intimate connection between the two. The superficial 
extent of these rocks, and the number and importance of the limonite 
ore beds, are not, however, always in the same proportion ; for the 
disturbances of these underlying rocks also seem to have had some- 
thing to do with the deposition of the overlying limonite ore beds, as, 
wherever these disturbances and hence decomposition have been greatest, 
there, too, the limonite ore beds are most numerous and extensive. The 
theory, therefore, that the great limonite ore banks of the Anticlinal Valleys 
are the results of the decomposition of the ferruginous limestones and 
dolomites of this sub-group, seems to hold good, as has been observed, 
so far as Jefferson County or Alabama are concerned. The supposition is 
that, while the calcareous matter of these ferruginous limestones and 
dolomites was being gradually removed by denudation, their iron was col- 
lecting together in concretionary masses and was left deposited in beds 
of varying extent on or near the sites once occupied by the original rocks. 
This ore generally overlies beds of impure, shaly limestone, though it is 
not beheved to be confined to superficial deposits. Its beds, like the Knox 
Dolomite, occupy a zone from two to three miles wide, running up and 
■down the center of the valley, or with the outcrop of the rocks, and, 
with occasional interruptions, may be traced the whole length of the 
valley. They occur principally in leached knolls, hills, and ridges, of 
orange and reddish-colored loams, from 50 feet to 200 feet high. These 
ridges and knolls, in the richer localities, for five and six miles up and 
down the valley and over areas of 500 and 600 acres, seem sometimes to 
be made up almost entirely of this ore, though in the poorer localities, of 
nearly or equal extent, the ore seems to be almost wanting. The ore 
exists in the banks in irregular masses as hard, solid, compact ore ; as cell- 
ular and honey-comb ore, and as ochreous and earthy varieties ; and 



Its Topography, Geology, and Natural Resources. 49 

from small shot ore to boulders fifteen feet and twenty feet in diameter, 
weighing 3,000 tons and more. It has commonly a dull, metallic luster. 
The surface indications, and the diggitigs into it, go to prove that the sup- 
ply is very great. It would, however, be a very difficult matter to esti- 
mate this supply with any degree of certainty. Though its principal 
occurrence is in knolls, hills, and ridges, it is sometimes found on the low, 
flat grounds. It has frequently associated with it ferruginous sandstones 
of fantastic shapes. It is a good ore on account of its purity and rich- 
ness, containing from 50 to 60 per cent, of metallic iron. It is now being 
used to a considerable extent in the furnaces of this county as a mixture 
with the fossiliferous ore of Red Mountain. The Alabama Great South- 
ern Railroad runs through or near the great deposits of it in this county. 
The following analyses of samples from the lower or south-west end 
of the valley will serve to represent the quality of this brown ore: 

(1) (2) (3) (4) 

Combined water 11.35 12.14 13.09 

Siliceous matter 9.80 2.46 12.16 3.10 

Sesquisoxide of iron 72.40 84.46 75.04 84.25 

Alumina 3.75 .91 .30 

Oxide of manganese .33 0.00 

Lime .26 .41 

Magnesia .04 .06 

Phosphoric acid 0.31 .58 0.00 trace 

Sulphur 0.00 .14 .14 

Metallic iron 50.68 59.15 52.55 59.00 

Phosphorus 0.12 0.25 0.00 trace 

The growth of the iron business in Alabama, and especially in Jeffer- 
son County, within the last few years, has been something remarkable. 
This county not only supplies its nine blast furnaces with ore, but also 
ships a great deal of it. The output of pig iron in Alabama for 1876 has 
been estimated at 24,732 tons, and for 1885 at 227,438 tons. About 
four-fifths of this iron was made from the ores and by the furnaces of Jef- 
ferson County. The present output in this county, it is expected, will 
be almost doubled within the next twelve months. 

The iron or middle division of Jefferson County is not only one 
hot bed of iron ores and limestones, but is, as has been seen, rich in the 
purest and best of materials for the making of lime, and for handsome, 
durable, and beautiful building stones. It is also blessed with a naturally 
fertile soil, and with an abundance of pure, free-flowing water for both 
man and beast. 

Nature has, therefore, favored Jefferson County with the best of her 
earthly goods, and with everything that is necessary for a future great- 
ness. 

4 




, J < <J L-J s.--*.M*m'--'-5V"JVTC 



«i^^k,i.Jl.Jl.^l..,U^L->..^. 






^^•i\y Htjl^Vy. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY AS IT WAS IN BY-GONE DAYS. 



B. E. GRACE. 



CHAPTER II. 

The territory which constitutes the county of Jefferson is a part of 
what was formerly known as the county of Blount. Under the territorial 
government known as the Mississippi Territory the counties were large 
and but sparsely populated. After the admission of Alabama as a State 
into the Union, and the adoption of the constitution, at the first session 
of the legislature, in 1820, great changes were made in the county 
boundaries, and many new counties established, among which was the 
present county of Jefferson^ which embraces the territory commencing 
at Village Springs, in the north-eastern portion, and extends down in a 
south-western direction to Roupe Valley, which has long been famous 
for its immense deposits of iron ore, and where the first iron was made in 
the State of Alabama. The county is about forty-five miles long, from 
north-east to south-west, and about thirty miles across the other way 
from a point between the Mulberry and Locust forks of the Warrior 
River to the Shades Mountain, and at the south-east extremity to Cahaba 
Valley. Jones Valley extends pretty near through the whole length of 



54 Jeffersoii Co7tJiiy. 

the county, being divided by a low ridge for two-thirds the distance, the 
most valuable portion running parallel and by the side of the great 
deposit of red hematite ore and known as Red Mountain. 

The city of Birmingham is situated in that part of the valley about 
midway between the north-east and south-west extremities, and within 
about eight miles of the southern boundary and three miles from Red 
Mountain. The great Warrior Coal Basin extends for about twenty miles 
at the widest part, from south-east to north-west, and the whole length of 
the county the other way. 

The early settlers say that the Indians did not occupy this portion of 
their territory as their homes, but seem to have set it apart as a hunting 
ground, and as a great, magnificent park, in which they, the Creeks 
and neighboring nations, the Cherokees and Choctaws, held their annual 
meetings to celebrate notable events in their history, and to perform their 
national games, like the ancient Greeks. They had a town on the 
Warrior River, known as Old Town, at which, according to Miss Duffie, 
a detachment from General Jackson's army had a battle with them and 
captured one of their principal chiefs. Long after the settlement of 
Jones Valley a trace leading from Old Town to Mudd Town, on the 
Cahaba River, now owned by Rev. John Caldwell, and crossing the 
Shades Mountain, about a mile east of Oxmoor, was plainly visible. 

After the year 1815, which was about the time of the first settlement 
of white persons in Jones Valley, there were very few Indians seen here, 
and no hostile demonstrations ; nevertheless, through abundant caution, 
the first settlers erected a rude, fort near the present site of Old Jonesboro, 
but it was seldom occupied. The first settlers, John Jones, Andrew 
McLaughlin, Samuel and Isaac Fields, and a few others, made the first 
settlement at the point above named, and the valley took its name from 
one of them, who, it seems, was a reckless, daring man, but who has left 
nothing but his name to throw any light upon his previous history. The 
others have left numerous descendants, who are among the noted families 
of our old citizens. At that settlement Moses Fields, lately deceased, 
was born, being the first white child born in the county. The first 
merchants there at that time were Ben. McWhorter, Mark M. Harris, 
Edward Sims, John B. Ayers, and John W. Bramlett. Near the same 
time a colony from Rutherford County, Tenn., settled at the place now 
known as Woodlawn, a suburb of the new city. This party was com- 
posed of Williamson Hawkins, Thomas Barton, WilHam Cowden, James 
Cunningham, probably Jonathan York and others, and soon afterward a 
large party from South Carolina, consisting of John Brown, Isaac Brown, 



Early History. 55 

John Brown (red), John Brown (black), John Wood, James H. Wood, 
William Culbertson, William C. Tarrant, Henry Tarrant, James Tarrant, 
William Reid, and several of the Montgomerys, and others not now recol- 
lected. The persons above mentioned, and their descendants, constituted 
a large part of our population, and have filled important offices in our 
county and State. After several years' residence there, Williamson 
Hawkins moved to the farm four miles west of Birmingham, where Mr. 
Thomas is now erecting his furnaces. It is a beautiful plateau of 2,000 
acres on Village Creek. At the start he cleared and cultivated much of 
the land with his own hands, but he afterward became wealthy, and in 
i860 was the owner of 150 negroes and made 100 bales of cotton per 
year, and large quantities of grain. Mr. Hawkins died soon after the 
surrender, and has left a numerous offspring, among whom were the late 
lamented Dr. Hawkins and his son James, the present able solicitor of 
our county. 

In coming from Nashville or Huntsville, and going toward Tusca- 
loosa, a person would enter the county at Village Springs, in which 
neighborhood, as far back as 1821, he would meet with many persons 
whose names have since been well known throughout the county. I think 
they were mostly Tennesseeans, among whom were Joseph D. Harrison, 
John Hanby, Sr. , Christopher Deavers, John Cantley, Jeremiah Randolph, 
and others. A little lower down Turkey Creek they would find Jonathan 
Liverman and George Powell, and proceeding down the Tuscaloosa road 
you would soon come upon another neighborhood of South Carolinians, 
consisting of Dr. Hagood, Robert H. Green, Horton B. Chamblee, 
James H. Hewitt, George L. Green, George Starns, John Burford, and 
others, some of whom, and their descendants, have filled the most 
important offices, from representative in Congress down to justice of the 
peace. 

The first regular term of the circuit court, I think, was held in a 
place called Carrollsville, now owned by Mrs. Nabers. 

The seat of justice was moved to Elyton in 1821. 

The principal citizens there at that time were David Prude, John 
Martin, James Hall, Stephen Hall, John M. Dupuy, J. W. McWilliams, 
Stephen Reeder, Daniel Watkins, and others. The population increased 
rapidly, James Mudd, Sr. , Jonathan Steel, E. W. Peck, Thomas W. 
Farrar, William B. Duncan, Samuel S. Earle, and Baylis W. Earle being 
among the early settlers. 

The first merchants in Elyton were Slaughter & Labuzan, Jonathan 
Steel, Charles McLaran, W. A. Walker, Sr., and Thomas W. Rockett. 



56 Jefferso7i County. 

The bar of Elyton soon after that time consisted of some of the 
ablest lawyers of the State. Among them were William Cochran, 
George N. Stewart, George W. Crabb, Harvey W. Ellis, John F. Forest, 
Walker K. Baylor, R. E. B. Baylor, Pleasure H. May, Daniel E. 
Watrous, Samuel W. Mardis, John W. Henley, Thomas W. Farrar, etc. 

Our physicians were Samuel S. Earle, Peyton King, and William B. 
Duncan. For several years they did most of the practice of the county. 
There was nothing like a drug store known in the county at that 
time. The physicians had neat saddle-bags, with numerous departments 
and pockets for the different kinds of medicines and surgical instruments. 

Our judiciary system at that time was a supreme court, which was 
composed of the different judges of the circuit court, who also exercised 
chancery jurisdiction. A county court, presided over by a judge who, 
as well as the other judges, was elected by the legislature, and a clerk 
of the county court, as well as of the circuit court, a sheriff and a 
coroner, all, except the judges, elected by the people. The judges of 
the county court, as far as recollected, were P. Walker, John Brown 
(red), and W. K. Baylor. 

The clerks of the county court, before the change to a probate 
court, were James Thompson, H. W. Goyne, Baylis E. Grace, and Joab 
Bagley. 

The clerks of the circuit court were James Dodds, M. H. Gillespie, 
and Hugh Morrow, Jr. 

The sheriffs of the olden time, before the war, were Levi Reed, 
Stephen Reader, John McWhorter, John B. Ayers, William A. Scott, 
Peter Anderson, B. E. Grace, W. C. Eubank, and A. Killough. 

The names of the general administrators and guardians were 
Samuel S. Earle, B. E. Grace, and A. J. Waldrop. 

Our mail facilities in the early history of the county were very poor. 
The mail from Huntsville to Tuscaloosa was carried on horseback once a 
week. This state of affairs continued for several years. It was succeeded 
first by a two-horse hack, and afterward by fine four-horse coaches from 
Huntsville to Tuscaloosa. For this last improvement the county was 
indebted to the energy and good management of Robert Jemison, of 
Tuscaloosa. Before the invention of the telegraph, under the adminis- 
tration of President Jackson, his enterprising Postmaster-General, Amos 
Kendall, conceived the idea of an express mail, by which news could be 
sent through the principal mail routes much more expeditiously than by 
the old plan. He accordingly established lines of that kind between the 
principal cities of the country. We had one between Nashville and 



Early History. 57 

Montgomery. He had relays of horses of the best blood every ten miles 
and boys who were fearless riders. The speed adopted was ten miles per 
hour. The writer of this lived on the line of that route, and frequently 
heard them pass at the dead hour of night. The boy who rode that ten 
miles was one of Birmingham's first settlers, and is now a prosperous 
and wealthy citizen. I allude to J. B. Webb. But the express mail 
was unpopular with the mercantile community of the country, as it gave 
great advantages for favoritism, and was soon abandoned. The mail 
stage system was carried to great perfection in consequence of the rivalry 
between two large contractors, Robert Jamison and James R. Powell, 
and was continued till superseded by the railroad system. 

About the year 1836 great excitement was caused in Jefferson County 
in consequence of the hostile attitude of the Seminole and Creek Indians, 
especially the latter. The treaty which had recently been concluded 
between the General Government and Indians for their removal to the 
West caused great dissatisfaction among a large portion of them, and 
several murders were committed between Montgomery and Columbus, 
Georgia, and other outrages, which finally resulted in a state of war. The 
Governor made a call for volunteers, and Jefferson County, as usual in 
such cases, responded promptly, and a company of near 100 men was 
soon raised,! and James McAdory was elected captain, I forget the 
names of the other officers, or I would gladly give them, as they were 
a gallant set of boys, and spent a hot summer in the sickly climate, 
at that time, of South Alabama, serving faithfully till the object of the 
campaign was accomplished, and the hostile Creeks were captured and 
sent ina Montgomery and Mobile by water to their new homes. The 
captain and most of his men returned, but several contracted disease 
which finally proved fatal. 

About the same time a regiment commanded by Colonel Dent, of 
Tuscaloosa, was sent to Florida against the Seminoles. There were some 
of the Jefferson boys in that expedition, but their names are not recol- 
lected. In that campaign the gallant Mims Jemison was killed. 

A fine regiment from Tennessee, under the command of General 
Armstrong, passed through our county near that time on their way to 
Florida. Some of the best blood of the Volunteer State was spilled on the 
' ' Tampas' desert strand. " In that campaign I recollect that Colonel Guild 
and one of General Carroll's sons were among them, and I think the 
immortal Cheatham was also with them, but am not certain. They spent 
several days resting and recruiting for the long march at the fine country 
residence of Colonel Dupuy, one and a half miles south of Birmingham. 



5 8 Jefferson County. 

At that time the land on which Birmingham is located, and all between 
that and his residence, belonged to the Colonel, and with genuine Vir- 
ginian hospitality he threw open his parlors and well-filled cribs to the 
volunteers and their horses, and they had a good time for about a week, 
but unfortunately while there the measles broke out in the camp and was 
left in the family, by which misfortune the Colonel lost twenty likely 
young negroes, worth about ;g 10,000. I have always thought that he 
should have been reimbursed from the United States Treasury, but as 
that kind of property was not very popular with the majority in Congress 
all applications for compensation by our representatives in Congress have 
been refused. 

The remainder of the Creek tribe which had not been sent by water 
soon after passed through El^^torr, and rested a short time there on 
their march to their new homes. I recollect noticing the chiefs as they 
sat on the piazza of the Taylor Hotel, and I think a finer looking set of 
men, consisting of some twenty or more, were seldom seen together. If 
there is any truth in phrenology, I don't think they would have suffered by 
comparison with the Congress of the United States, which, at that time, 
contained such men as Clay, Webster, Crittenden, Menifee, Underwood, 
Graves, Bell, Grundy, etc. 

\ That part of Jefferson County where the first settlement was made, 
and which seems likely to be diverted into a great manufacturing city by 
the energy and capital of Mr. DeBardeleben and his associates, was in the 
early days considered the garden spot of Jefferson County. When I 
first knew it such was its fame abroad that it had already brought 
together a large population. In the election for sheriff in 1823 or 1824 
John McWhorter, the successful candidate, received 201 votes, equal to 
the vote of the most popular candidate of the present day. The lands 
for a few miles east and north of Jonesboro brought as high, at public 
sale, as $100 per acre. This fine country was owned, when I first knew it, 
by such men as John Smith, Darby Henley, John W. Terrell, William 
Nabers, Sr., John Cochran, Wm. H. Cochran, Isham Harrison, Gen. John 
Wood, Mortimer Jordan, Octavius Spencer, Stephen Hodges, Wm. K. 
Paulling, John Paulling, Joseph Riley, John Brandon, George Ware, and 
others; and further south, in the neighborhood of 'Squire Owen, we had 
Thomas H. Owen, Ben Worthington, Ninean Tannehill, James McAdory 
and his several sons, Robert McAdory, John Moore, William B. Moore, 
and I. W. Sadler, who still lives, an honor to his country and his race. 
Down on Big creek, in the north-west part of the county, the country 
belonged almost to three or four families, viz: the Waldrops, Parsons, 



Early History. 59 

Vines, and Smiths, three of which famihes could raise a captain's com 
pany, and did come very near doing so in the late unpleasantness. 

At the time of which I write the county was subject to great incon- 
venience in getting supplies such as they could not raise themselves. 
The land was productive, and required but little labor to produce the 
necessaries of life. The woods on both sides of the valley were the hunt- 
ers' paradise, abounding in deer and turkeys, with some panther and bear 
and numerous rattlesnakes. We wore long buckskin leggings, reaching 
from the ankle up to the hips, fastened with brass buttons on each side of 
the leg all the way up. The winters were not as cold then as now. 
Cattle and horses were raised in the woods, and afforded all the butter, 
milk, and beef that we needed. What little cotton was made was hauled 
to the falls of Black Warrior, as , Tuscaloosa was then called, and 
exchanged for salt, sugar, coffee, and calico, which was then twenty-five 
cents per yard. I think the people enjoyed themselves then much better 
than they do now. They would meet at public places every Saturday 
and play "Fives" — a game much more manly and interesting than the 
present game of baseball. When they got too drunk to play ball they 
would fight on the real Marquis of Queensbury style, and each man would 
select a second, strip to the waist, and go into a lot or ring and fight it 
out. It was very seldom that any weapons were used, as it was considered 
dishonorable and cowardly to carry a weapon. 

The county between Jones Valley and the Warrior River, and on the 
south side to the Cahaba River, was full of game. On the north 
side there were but few settlers. There were Richard B. Walker, Ralph 
McGee, Tom James, Isaiah Bagley, and a few others. The south side 
was almost entirely uninhabited. The Warrior and Cahaba Rivers were 
then beautiful streams, clear as crystal, in which you could see a fish in 
ten feet of water. The fisherman in his canoe, dug out of a poplar tree, 
with his gig in his hand and his rifle lying beside him, ready for a deer if 
he should venture in sight, with the muscadine vines hanging in festoons 
from the tops of the tall trees that overhung the water with their clusters 
of black, delicious fruit, and the beautiful red-horse fish sporting beneath 
his canoe, with their silver sides and red fins and tails, in the most desira- 
ble and healthful climate in the United States, the thirty-third degree of 
north latitude, almost entirely free from cyclones and northers, is it any 
wonder that Alabama's most gifted poet, A. B. Meek, surrounded by 
such scenes, should have been inspired to write the following beautiful 
verses : 



6o Jeffejson County. 



Land of the South, imperial land, 

How proud thy mountains rise ! 
How sweet the scenes on every hand. 

How fair thy evening skies ! 
But not for this, oh, not for these, 

I love thy fields to roam. 
Thou hast a dearer spell to me, 

Thou art my native home. 

Thy rivers roll their liquid wealth 

Unequaled to the sea; 
Thy hills and valleys bloom with healtfi 

And green with verdure be ; 
But not for thy proud ocean streams. 

Nor for their azure dome. 
Sweet Sunny South, I cling to thee. 

Thy art my native home. 

I've stood beneath Italia's clime, 

Beloved of tale and song ; 
On Helvyn's hills, proud and sublime, 

Where nature's wonders throng ; 
By Tempe's classic sunlit stream, 

Where gods of old did roam, 
But ne'er have found so fair a land 

As thou, my native home. 

What I have said of Jefferson County in the foregoing pages is 
intended to apply to it from its earUest settlement up to the year 1861. 
Over the scenes which occurred here during the next five years I would 
willingly draw a vail. As for the present condition and status of our 
county, the public must judge for itself. And as to the future, as I am 
no prophet or son of a prophet, I shall make no prediction. 

Trussville was one of the most important portions of our county. 
That part of the county was settled at a very early day by such men as 
Warren Truss, the grandfather of our present sheriff; Nicholas Talley, 
William Perkins, Charles C. Clayton, and Rickets Blythe, Elijah Self, 
Stephen Garner, B. Praytor, Andrew Bass, Burnell Bass, and others. 

Our territory extends over a portion of Cahaba Valley, including the 
present town of Leeds. In that portion of our territory lived John 
Oliver, for many years one of our representatives in the legislature. Wil- 
liam Cameron was a resident and merchant of Cedar Grove. There was 
also a numerous family of the McDaniels, and Worthingtons. 

In that portion of our county known as the Bethlehem neighbor- 
hood, in the western part of the valley, lived many good citizens, such as 



Early History. 6i 

Wm. Brown, Sr., and his several sons; James Rutledge, Stephen 
Hodges, WiUiam Snow, Alvis Davis, etc. 

In the Jonesboro neighborhood lived Wm. R. Sadler, one of the 
most prominent citizens of that part of the county. He built the first 
grist and saw mill in that section, and supplied the people with meal, flour, 
and lumber for many years. 

Among the lawyers of Elyton was Judge Peck, for many years one 
of the leading attorneys of the county and of the State. 

Thomas J. Wright, one of the leading merchants of Elyton, was 
noted for his candor and integrity in all business transactions. 

John F. Forrest was one of our last judges of the county court, 
under the old system. 

Colonel Green and Captain Hewitt removed to this county at an early 
day, about the year 1819 or 1820, and settled about six and nine miles 
north of Birmingham, respectively, which has since been known as the 
Green neighborhood, and lived there till their deaths, which occurred 
more than thirty years ago. They were both men of note in their day 
and time. Colonel Green came from the Abbeville district. South Caro- 
lina, and while quite a young man had charge for several years of the large 
planting interest of George McDuffee, the eloquent representative in 
Congress from that district, and it is said that after a long absence in 
Washington City, on his return, his large estate had been so skillfully 
managed and improved that he could scarcely recognize it as his former 
property. 

Colonel Green married Jane Young, one of the most amiable and lovely 
women I ever knew, and after he came to Alabama he acquired property 
rapidly. Such was his good judgment that everything he took hold of 
seemed to prosper with him, and at his death he left a fine estate to his 
family. He was a very public-spirited man, and a great friend of internal 
improvements, and became a stockholder in the Selma, Rome & Dalton 
road before it reached Montevallo. He was generous almost to a fault, 
and I have known him in times of scarcity to send a four-horse wagon- 
load of corn to his more needy neighbor, and have it thrown into his crib 
without expecting any compensation. He always took an active part in 
elections, and supported the candidate whom he considered the most 
worthy and best qualified to fill the office he sought. 

Captain Hewitt was, I think, the best informed politician I ever knew, 
was a strict constructionist, and understood the true principles of the gov- 
ernment thoroughly. In common with most of the Southern people of 
that day he was opposed to a protective tariff, believing that the consumer 



62 Jefferson Coiinty. 

had to pay more than his true share of the public revenue. He was 
a successful farmer, and in the latter years of his life he engaged in the 
coal business. He, together with David Hanby, Jonathan Steele, and 
James A. Mudd, were the pioneers of that business in this country. He 
opened mines near the mouth of Turkey Creek, and David Hanby opened 
higher up the river. Steele and Mudd had their location near the mouth 
of Village Creek. They constructed flat-bottomed boats out of the tall 
poplars that grew in the rich bottoms, and after putting on several thous- 
and bushels of coal would float them down to Mobile. The Squaw 
Shoals was the great obstacle, where they always had to wait for a rise 
in the river, and with plenty of water they generally went over safely, 
though some boats were lost, and one or two lives. The men who 
learned to pilot a boat down the Warrior River safely became almost as 
famous as Mark Twain's pilots described in his "Life on the Mississippi." 

About the year 1832, John Cantley, a genial, whole-souled man, 
made his appearance in Jefferson County, and established his home here. 
He was of the mercantile firm of Audley, Gazzam & Co., of Mobile. In 
passing back and forth to New York to purchase goods, he became inter- 
ested in this place, and finally located here. He was a man of splendid 
physique, and wonderfully magnetic in his nature. He soon became very 
popular with the people of his adopted county. They gave him the high- 
est honor in their power, which was to represent them in their State leg- 
islature. Tuscaloosa was at that time the capital of the State. 

His dry goods store was located in Elyton, and soon became the ren- 
dezvous of all the bone and sinew of the county surrounding the little 
antique village. There were congenial spirits found in this Jones Valley, 
and among the prominent citizens of that time we will mention Judge E. 
W. Peck, who has since become chief justice of the State ; another law- 
yer, John W. Henley, who was the father of one of Birmingham's most 
prosperous and popular physicians, Dr. Henley, also of Robt. Henley, the 
first mayor of this city. The descendants of these three men are now 
living in Birmingham, which has risen, phcenix-like, from the corn and 
cotton fields of their fathers. Hon. John Martin, the "silver-tongued 
orator," and congressman from this district, having married the daughter 
of Judge Peck, is now a prominent citizen of Birmingham. Among 
others at that time, living in this embryo wonder of the world, was Dr. S. 
S. Earle, one of the most profound scholars and best physicians of his age. 
Also Walker K. Baylor and Judge Thomas A. Walker. Any or all of 
these men would have been ornaments to any society or profession. 

Major Cantley subsequently removed to Tuscaloosa, which proved 



Early History. 63 

unfortunate for him. He engaged in the mercantile business there upon 
a large scale, but his partners soon involved the firm in trouble, both 
financial and otherwise. Major Cantley was quite as popular in the Druid 
City as he had been in the mountains of Jefferson, and was soon made 
one of the directors of the Bank of Tuscaloosa. He was a member of 
that old and time-honored institution, called Masons, and at his burial 
this fraternity showered every honor known to their order over his remains 
and grave. At the early age of thirty-seven, in the prime of his life, this 
man of promise was stricken down, without a moment's warning, by a 
secreted enemy. So unsuspecting and conscious of having no such 
enemy that, when dying, a few hours after, he inquired: " Who did it?" 
His widow is still living with her daughter, the wife of B. E. Grace, Sr. 

Mineral Interests. 

About the year 1823, I think it was, that a few gentlemen of means, 
McGee, and some others, being greatly impressed with the immense 
deposits of brown hematite ore in Roupe Valley, thirty miles south- 
west of Birmingham, determined to try the experiment of making iron 
on a cheap plan, as that article was very much needed by the early set- 
tlers, whose nearest market (and a very poor one at that time) was the 
present town of Tuscaloosa, then more commonly known as the Falls of 
the Black Warrior. 

The company was so fortunate as to secure the co-operation of Mr. 
Hillman, of New Jersey, the grandfather of our townsman, and part 
owner and manager of the Alice Furnaces of Birmingham, one of which 
was the first erected here, and on a bold little stream which runs across 
Roupe Valley and empties its waters into the Shades Creek, near its 
mouth, he erected his little furnace, and with a large hammer propelled 
by water (which the writer has since seen in operation) hammered out a 
suflficient quantity of the best kind of tough metal to supply the country 
for some distance around. The farmers had their plows made and horses 
shod with it, which is probably as good a test as making car wheels ; but 
unfortunately for Mr. Hillman, and for the iron business in Alabama, he 
died soon after getting his furnace in operation, and was buried in the 
Baptist burying ground near the little town of Bucksville. It has been so 
long ago that the exact spot cannot now be pointed out, and his son and 
grandsons have endeavored in vain to find it in order to remove the 
remains to their splendid home in Nashville, and erect a suitable monu- 
ment over them. 



64 Jejjerson Cottnty. 

This was, I think, about the commencement of the iron manufacture 
in this State. After the death of Mr. Hilhnan the property fell into the 
hands of Ninean Tannehill, and afterward was run by Messrs. Stroup & 
Sanders, and finally was destroyed by the Union forces, and was purchased 
by the Thomas Iron Company in 1868, who are now the present owners. 

Near the same time, or soon afterward, a furnace was erected a few 
miles from Montevallo, by another one of Birmingham's worthy citizens, 
Mr. Horace Ware, and afterward he was the principal party in the build- 
ing up and putting in operation the splendid and widely-known iron works 
near Columbiana. 

At an early day there was a furnace or two started near Round 
Mountain, near the line between Alabama and Georgia. These furnaces 
were all run by charcoal. It remained for Mr. DeBardeleben and Colonel 
Sloss, assisted by James and William Thomas, and others, to utilize our 
bituminous coal in the manufacture of iron, which great discovery was 
made only a few years ago. 

At a very early date in our history it was apparent that our great nat- 
ural resources could not be developed without transportation, and Congress 
was applied to for assistance, and an act was passed granting a fund of 
three per cent, of the sales of all the public lands in Alabama to be used 
exclusively for connecting the waters of the Tennessee River with the 
waters of the Mobile Bay. This act produced a large fund, which was, 
from time to time, paid into the State treasury, and loaned out to com- 
panies, and, I think, finally lost to the State. 

The plan contemplated at first was to connect the Tennessee and 
Tombigbee by canal through a succession of valleys, which extend through 
our State, from northeast to south-west, but that idea was abandoned 
when railroads became more common, and it was proposed by some 
enterprising men to connect the two sections by a railroad from Mont- 
gomery to Decatur, but that idea was ridiculed by many as fanciful. One 
member from East Alabama declared, in a debate in the legislature on an 
appropriation for a survey, that nothing but a pelican could travel the 
country from Elyton to Decatur, and that it would have to carry its 
rations in its pouch. At last, however, several years before the war, the 
legislature was induced to grant the sum of ;^io,ooo for a reconnois.sance 
and preliminary survey of the contemplated route, and Mr. John T. 
Milner was appointed to make it. He collected his corps and entered 
upon his duties, which I think consumed the best part of the year, at the 
end of which he made a report to the proper authorities, which was 
published in pamphlet form, and made the project look entirely feasible. 



Early History. 65 

The estimates of the quantities of coal and iron that would finally pass 
over the road were almost prophetic, and have been more than realized. 
One of our most learned and worthy citizens and best critics, after reading 
it in the writer's presence, removed his spectacles from his brow and 
remarked: "Well, if Milner wrote that, he must be a swinged cat, and 
deceives his looks most egregiously. " It is unfortunate that so few of 
these pamphlets are now extant, as they would be interesting reading. 
It would be too tedious to enter into a detailed account of the difficulties 
encountered in its construction. Mr. Milner was the chief engineer, and 
has lived to send, himself, a great deal of the freight which he predicted 
for the road. The names of Hartley Boyle and Colonel Jackson will long 
be remembered in connection with its construction. 

At the beginning of the war this road was approaching the mineral 
region of the State, which caused the development of the Cahaba Coal 
before that of the Warrior Coal Fields. About this time the company 
constructing it conceived the idea of erecting iron works near Red 
Mountain, and did erect two rude furnaces during the war at a point seven 
miles south of Birmingham, and named the place O.xmoor. One of the 
furnaces was run awhile, but was destroyed in March, 1865, by Wilson's 
army. The experiment had not been encouraging up to that time, as the 
company was imposed upon by incompetent persons desiring to keep out 
of the war. It was not until it fell into the hands of Mr. DeBardeleben 
and his associates that it began to show profitable results. Its history 
since that time is well known. The last named company also established 
themselves in the coal and coke business at the Pratt mines and demon- 
strated to the world the fine qualities of the coal of that region. Since 
the war large investments have been made here by capitalists in mineral 
lands, but much remains unsold at low prices. 

About the month of July, 1868, there came to the house of the 
writer, on foot, with blistered feet, a fine-looking, middle-aged man who 
reminded me very much of Walker K. Baylor, who is well known to all 
of our old citizens. He told me he was worn out and tired and wanted 
to rest, and had heard something about the Red Mountain and wanted to 
see it ; said he had been engaged several years of his life in constructing 
the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and for the last four years in 
fighting the Yankees and had got whipped. He said that he had belonged 
to General Polk's staff, and spent all his money in providing for the necessi- 
ties of the soldiers, and that his name was Tom Peters. He was quarter- 
master for the corps, I believe. After a night's rest we went up on top of 
the mountain, and while standing on the twenty-foot bluff of red ore he 



66 Jeffet'son County. 

exclaimed, in the supposed language of the Indian chief, " Here we rest." 
He afterward made that point his headquarters for a year or two, and 
soon effected a sale of the Roupe Valley property, which put him in funds 
and gave him a start, and he probably did more to bring the capabilities 
of this region for manufacturing purposes into notice than any other man. 
His untimely death is known and regretted by all. 



BAYLIS EARLE GRACE. 

BY D. B. G. 

The early days of this century brought forth men of hardy frames, 
indomitable energy, and undying patriotism. On the 12th of November, 
1808, Baylis Earle Grace was born inGreeneville district. South Carolina. 
His middle name was bestowed upon him by his parents in honor of Gen- 
eral J. B. Earle, many of whose descendants now live in Jefferson County. 
When an infant the parents of Mr. Grace moved to Jackson County, 
Tennessee, and when he was twelve years of age they removed to 
Jefferson County, Alabama, and settled near Jonesboro. He has resided 
in this county ever since. Mr. Grace entered Alabama at the time it was 
admitted into the Union, and has seen it rise from a wilderness to one of 
the proudest and richest of the galaxy of Southern States. But few men 
are vouchsafed such a privilege by an indulgent Providence. 

In those early days educational advantages were limited, and Mr. 
Grace attended school but one year, near the spot where Woodward's 
furnace now stands, under the tuition of Thomas Carroll. The school- 
house was a log cabin without any floor. Among his schoolmates were 
several pupils who afterward rose to distinction, such as John W. Henley, 
the father of Dr. A. T. Henley, and William King, both of whom 
became distinguished lawyers ; Drayton Nabers, the father of Dr. F. D. 
Nabers, also two daughters of Isham Harrison, Eliza and Laura ; the first 
named became the wife of Dr. B. W. Earle, and Laura married the late 
Wm. H. Jack, an eminent lawyer of Texas. 

Mr. Grace was left an orphan at an early age, and being the only 
child of a widowed mother her support fell upon his shoulders. But he 
descended from a line of revolutionary ancestors, and the indomitable 
spirit burned in his breast that his forefathers displayed in their struggles 
for independence. His grandfather, Joseph Grace, surrendered his life 
for his country in the battle of Eutaw Springs. His grandmother, Mrs. 



.^^Jiv 




jf'^ yf^^/!±^^ 



Early History. 69 

Catherine Elizabeth Grace, set fire to her own house rather than allow it 
to shelter the enemy. Her Spartan courage was mentioned highly by 
Mrs. Elliott in her work, "Women of the Revolution." It was this 
same hardy courage that fired Thomas Grace with the pioneer spirit of 
Daniel Boone and impelled him to carve out a home in the virgin wilds of 
Kentucky, and inspired Elihu C. Grace to offer five sons to the Southern 
Confederacy, and has won success in the battle of life for Rev. W. C. 
Grace, of Tennessee, Colonel Preston Grace, of Arkansas, and other 
descendants. It was this high sense of justice and right that has prevented 
the name from ever being stained by crime. 

The efforts of Mr. Grace in making his way in the world were 
successful, and in 1827 he was taken into the circuit clerk's office at 
Elyton by Harrison W. Goyne, as his assistant, and transacted most of 
the business. At the end of the term he was elected to this office by a 
vote of the people over Hugh M. Caruthers, a very popular man, and 
was re-elected in 1835 and 1839, but before the expiration of his last term, 
he resigned and moved to the country at the place known as Grace's Gap, 
where the L. & N. road cuts through Red Mountain. During his term of 
office Mr. Grace kept the neatest set of books ever known in the county, 
and they are now in the archives of the county in the courthouse in 
Birmingham. 

In 1844 Mr. Grace was elected sheriff of Jefferson County, but as the 
sheriff can only serve one term he was not a candidate for re-election. 
When the law was passed requiring the lands to be assessed by sectional 
divisions, he was appointed by Judge Forrest to make the first assessment, 
which duty he performed to the satisfaction of all concerned. In 1859 ^^ 
was appointed general administrator and guardian for the county, and 
held the office until 1863. In his public trusts as well as private duties he 
was the same honest, earnest, faithful man. The people delighted to 
honor his sterling qualities of head and heart. He never had an enemy. 
His modesty has often held him back from places of preferment. He is 
a gentle man. 

In early manhood Mr. Grace wedded Miss Jane Mitchell, a relative 
of Judge Lawrence Mitchell, of Florida, and Mrs. B. P. Worthington, of 
Birmingham. His second wife was Miss Ann Eliza Cantley, daughter of 
Hon. John Cantley, a member of the legislature from Jefferson County. 
His first wife bore him three sons. The eldest. Rev. F. M. Grace, D. D., 
is now president of the Mansfield (La.) Female College; the second son 
was accidentally killed while at college in Athens, Georgia, and the third, 
5 



■JO Jefferson County. 

Baylis E. Grace, Jr., is a leading lawyer of Birmingham. A grandson is 
part proprietor and manager of the Birmingham Daily Chronicle. 

Mr. Grace has by hard study made considerable literary attainments, 
and his articles to the press have been widely read and admired. He was 
one of the first newspaper men of the county, and edited the Central 
Alabamian, the successor to the Jones Valley Times, the first paper 
published in the county, a file of which is now preserved by the Tennessee 
Historical Society. A vein of poetry runs through his nature, and he has 
often successfully invoked the muse. He is also a musician, and has 
delighted his friends with selections on the flute. In years past he was 
often the winner of the beef at shooting matches then so frequent. His 
rifle is a very fine one, the gift of an admiring stock drover from Tennessee, 
who stopped over night on his way South. It was the custom at these 
matches to divide the beef into five quarters, the fore and hind quarters, 
and the hide and tallow made the fifth. 

Mr. Grace was the first person to attach any importance to the Red 
Mountain as a mineral deposit. He had the first iron made that was ever 
made from the ore of that mountain, by sending a two-horse wagon load 
to the puddling furnace of Newton Smith, of Bibb County, who had it 
smelted and hammered into bars, and it was pronounced by the black- 
smiths equal to Swede iron. He afterward made the first sale of iron ore 
for manufacturing purposes. The sale was made to Colonel John T. 
Milner for the use of the Oxmoor Company, and from this land they now 
draw their principal supply of ore. He first recognized the abilities of 
Major Thomas Peters, who came to Jefferson County prospecting after the 
war, and he took the Major to his home and encouraged him in develop- 
ing those grand ideas which, now in the full fruition of realization, have 
challenged the wonder and admiration of the civilized world. 

For some years Mr. Grace has been the agent of the Thomas Iron 
Company, of Pennsylvania, and all of their magnificent iron and coal 
lands, which they are now developing by building furnaces and founding 
a town near Birmingham, were purchased by him. It was through his 
faith in the possibilities of this mineral district and his representations of 
its unequaled advantages that these Pennsylvania iron kings were induced 
to invest here. Their investment attracted the attention of other 
capitalists, and the impetus was given to iron making that has carried the 
Birmingham district to the first place in the new world. 

Mr. Grace now resides one mile from Birmingham, and surrounded 
by home comforts and the amenities of an extended social circle he enjoys 
life with a zest equaled by few, He is a living example of the health- 



Early History. 71 

fulness of Jones Valley, and his pure and honest life has preserved him 
to a green old age. He is a firm believer in the great future of this coun- 
try. He has seen the land for which he gave a few dollars an acre 
increase in value to $10,000 an acre. It is his daily custom to ride into the 
city on business, and he meets hundreds of his friends who are glad to 
grasp his hand and look in the eyes of an honest man — "the noblest 
work of God." Of all the men who crowd the busy marts of trade there 
are none whose memories reach farther back into the annals of the history 
of Jefferson County. He is a link that binds the past to the present. 
"Birmingham Illustrated" says: "Mr. Grace is one of the most illus- 
trious characters of the valley planter. Venerable in memories of the 
past, he is yet active in the new era. The victim of a revolution, he is 
one of the fortunate beneficiaries of the restored prosperity of Alabama 
in the new channels." 




(C«>o^ly Q^^VeYy. 



CHAPTER III. 



SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES 



in the Legislature of Alabama from Jefferson County, 
ators in italics. 



Names of Sen- 



1822. Isaac Brown, Thomas W. Farrar. 

1823. John Wood, JohnJBrown, Isham Harrison. 

1824. J. Wood, Thomas W. Farrar, Benjamin Worthington. 

1825. Johi Brown, J. Brown, Walker K. Baylor, John M. Dupey. 

1826. J. Brozvn, J. Brown, J. M. Dupey, John Martin. 

1827. J. Brown, William R. Paulding, J. Brown, John F. Forrest.. 

1828. John Wood, John Brown, John M. Dupey. 

1829. J. Wood, John Brown, John F. Forrest. 

1830. John M. Dupey, John Brown, Peyton King, 

1 83 1. J. M. Dupey, Emery Loyd, Harrison W. Goyne. 

1832. /. M. Djipcy, H. M. Carithers, Samuel S. Earle. 
'833. /. Brown, John Brown (red), H. M. Carithers. 

1834. Jolin Broivn, John Cantley, William A. Scott. 

1835. /• Brown, J. Cantley, Lemuel G. McMillon. 

1836. Harrison W. Goyne, L. G. McMillon, Moses Kelly, Jr. 

1837. H. W. Goyne, Octavius Spencer, Benjamin Tarrant. 

1838. Walker K. Baylor, S. S. Earle, L. G. McMillon. 



County Officers. 



1839. C- C. P. Farrar, S. S. Earle, L. G. McMillon. 

1840. C. C. P. Fatrar, L. G. McMillon, Jeremiah Randolph. 

1841. Walker K. Baylor, L. G. McMillon, J. Randolph. 

1842. IV. K. Baylor, S. S. Earle, L. G. McMillon. 

1843. Moses Kelly, William S. Mudd, L. G. McMillon. 

1844. John Ashe, W. S. Mudd, Octavius Spencer. 

1845. Jolin Ashe, J. Randolph, Christopher Deavers. 
1847. M. Kelly, W. S. Mudd, L. G. McMillon. 
1849. M. Kelly, John Camp, Hugh Copeland. 

185 1. M. Kelly, William S. Earnest, S. A. Tarrant. 

1853. M. Kelly, John Camp. 

1855. H. W. Nelson, J. Camp. 

1857. John T. Storrs, O. S. Smith. 

1859. H. IV. Nelson, Alburto Martin. 

1 86 1. John P. Morgan. 

1863. Mitchell T. Potter, John C. Morrow. 

1865. G. T. Deason, John Oliver. 

1868. John Oliver, Thomas Sanford. 

1870. /. Oliver, G. W. Hewitt. 

1873. G. IV. Hewitt, R. S. Greene. 

1874-75. /. J-V. Inzer, R. S. Greene. 

1876-77. R. W. Cobb, J. J. Jolly, I. W. McAdory. 

1878-79. Dr. W. A. Rosamond, W. A. Walker, Jr., J. J. Akers. 

1880-81. Dr. J. B. Lnckie, Dr. Kout, H. J. Sharit. 

1882-83. Dr. J. B. Luckie, James Hawkins, C. McAdory. 

1884-85. R. H. Sterrett, C. McAdory, S. E. Greene. 

1886-87. P- H. Sterrett, G. W. Hewitt, I. W. McAdory. 



County Officers from the year i860: 



PROBATE JUDGES. 

W. L. Wilson was elected in May, 1862, and served until August, 
1865. 

John C. Morrow was appointed to fill the vacancy and served from 
1865 until November, 1884. 

Mitchell T. Porter was appointed November 10, 1884, and in August, 
1886, was elected for a term of six years. 



74 Jefferson County. 



CIRCUIT CLERKS. 

A. J. Waldrop, 1858 until 1865. 

James M. Ware, 1865 until 1874. 

R. S. Montgomery, 1874 until 1879. 

R. C. Bradley, 1879 ""til 1886. 

William Burgin, 1886, for a term of six years. 

COUNTY TREASURERS. 

Nathaniel Hawkins, i860 until 1864. 
W. P. Hickman, 1864 until 1873. 
C. L. McMillan, 1873 until 1877. 
W. P. Hickman, 1877, term ends 1888. 

COUNTY SHERIFFS. 

Richard Hudson, i860 until 1862. 
Abner Killough, 1862 until 1865. 
W. F. Hanby, 1865 until 1868. 
Marion A. May, 1868 until 1871. 
James T. Eubank, 1871 until 1874. 
R. H. Hagood, 1874 until 1877. 
John T. Reed, 1877 until 1880. 
T. A. Anderson, 1880 until 1884. 
S. R. Truss, 1884, serving second term. 

TAX ASSESSORS. 

T. F. Waldrop, i860 until 1871. 
John A." Baker, 1871 until 1875. 
Samuel W. Downey, 1875 until i88r. 
A. J. Tarrant, 1881, term expires 1889. 

TAX COLLECTORS. 

W. B. Cofley, 1858 until 1868. 
T. B. Ayres, 186S until 1874. 
William H. Riley, 1874 until 1880. 
W. J. Mims, 18S0, still in office. 



County Officers. 75 



CITY JUDGE. 

H. A. Sharpe, appointed December, 1884. Elected for a term of 
six years in 1886. 

CITY CLERK. 

Frank M. Irion, appointed 1884, and reappointed 1886 for a term of 
six years. 

CITY SOLICITOR. 

James E. Hawkins, appointed 1885, elected 1886. Term six years. 

CIRCUIT SOLICITORS. 

Lucian Martin, i860 until 1864. 
Alburto Martin, 1864 until 1865. 
Judge J. T. Luper, 1865 until 1866. 
Alburto Martin, 1866 until 1868. 

COUNTY SOLICITOR. 

William A. Walker, Jr., 1868 until 1876. 

CIRCUIT SOLICITORS. 

T. B. Nesmith, 1876 until 1880. 

T. W. Coleman, 1880 until 1886. 

James E. Hawkins represented the latter in Jefferson County. 

J. T. Martin, 1886, for a term of six years. 

SURVEYORS. 

Jarrell Waldrop, i860 until 1873. 
H. L. Wheeler, 1873 until 1876. 
J. A. Ray, 1876, still in office. 



76 



Jefferson County. 



REGISTERS IN CHANCERY. 

Joab Bagley, i860 until 1868. 

James M. Ware, 1868 until 1879. 

A. O. Lane, 1879 until 1883. 

E. L. Clarkson, 1883 until 1886. 

Charles A. Senn, 1886, for a term of six years. 





4 



c^. a c<:^ 



Z\ie BeT\(k ar\^ Baf. 



A. O. LANE, 
Of the^ Birminghs^m Bar. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The history of the Bench and Bar of Jefferson County, Alabama, 
covers a period of more than fifty years. As usual with new counties 
Jefferson was sparsely settled, and the administration of justice was begun, 
and for several years prosecuted, in the crudest and most primitive man- 
ner. There was no courthouse, and a log cabin was substituted therefor. 
The first court was held in a log hut, about a mile from the Worthington 
place, which is situated about one mile east of Birmingham. This seat 
of justice was never dignified with a name, and after three or four terms 
of the court were held there, Carrollsville (four miles south of where Bir- 
mingham now stands) was selected as the place to hold the courts. Here, 
too, the court accommodations never exceeded the limits of a log cabin, 
in which two terms of the court were held, and then the county seat was 
removed to Elyton, about two miles south of the present flourishing city 
of Birmingham. All this time the county was rapidly filling up with a 
thrifty and hardy population, whose aspirations reached out and secured a 
brick courthouse. The courts of record continued to be held at Elyton 
until the fall of 1873, when the county seat was removed to Birmingham. 
Work was at once begun on a courthouse that promised to be a "beauty", 
if not a "joy forever"; certainly a suitable temple of justice for even a 



8o Jefferson County. 

growing county for many years to come. But the foundation proved to 
be a failure, and the acoustics of the courtroom are simply execrable. 
The growing demand for more space and the unsafe condition of the 
rickety structure will soon necessitate the erection of another edifice, 
which, let it be hoped, will be worthy of a people second to none in push, 
vim, enterprise, and public spirit. While the present courthouse was^ 
building in 1874, the courts were held in Sublett Hall, in the city of Bir- 
mingham, then used as a theater. 

From the formation of the county in 1819 until 1825, the supreme 
court was composed of the several circuit judges of the State. It has been 
referred to by one of Alabama's most witty and far-famed lawyers, as the 
' ' court on horseback. " By the Constitution of 1819 the general assembly 
was authorized to establish a supreme court, and thus a burden was lifted 
from the circuit judges that should never have been placed on their 
shoulders. 

In those days the circuit judges had chancery jurisdiction, and this 
continued until after the adoption of the Constitution of 18 19, soon after 
which the chancery courts were established, and from that time to the 
present day separate and distinct jurisdictions have been maintained, 
except where city courts have been established, which, as a rule, have 
been clothed with common law and equity jurisdiction, as is the case with 
the city court of Birmingham, established in December, 1884. In the 
early history of said county there was a county court, which was the same 
as our probate courts of the present day. There was then no county 
court as the same is now understood. It might be added here, in addition 
to the above, there were justice courts with jurisdiction not materially 
different from those of the present day. From 1825 to 1828 the presiding 
judges were A. S. Lipscomb, John Gale, Jr., and John D. Flinn. Then 
the judges exchanged circuits, which is now done only to a limited extent. 
Judge Lipscomb was a man of more than ordinary ability. From 1828 
to 1883 the courts were presided over by Henry W. Collier, S. L. Perry, 
Reuben Chapman, A. B. Moore, Eli S. Shortridge, Thomas A. Walker, 
Robert Dougherty, Thomas D. Shortridge, and W. S. Mudd. Of these 
Colyer, Perry, Chapman, and Moore afterward became Governors of Ala- 
bama. Eli Shortridge was a learned and able judge. He was possessed 
of fine sense, clear perception, and vigorous intellect. Dougherty was a 
great wit, but at the same time a profound lawyer and a good judge. 
Collier was a close student and a fine lawyer, and he utilized and 
illustrated his learning on the bench. Perry, Chapman, Moore, Walker, 
and George D. Shortridge were all good judges and men of more than 




'/f 




The Bench and Bar. 83 

ordinary ability. William S. Mudd became judge in 1857 and remained 
on the bench until 1883, when ill health compelled him to resign. It is 
safe to say Alabama never had a sounder lawyer or more accurate circuit 
judge than Mudd. The writer well remembers the first time he ever saw 
Judge Mudd ; he was on the bench at the time, and his love of justice 
was noticeable in every ruling. He presided with dignity, and was so 
careful to always try to do exact justice that the unfortunate litigant rarely 
complained. He had no patience for falsehood, and whenever it showed 
itself he would turn away, as if ashamed of his race, and look out of the 
window that the jury might not see his disgust. The confidence of the 
people in his honor and integrity was simply boundless. If a little exag- 
gerated, it was pretty well illustrated by a remark of one who knew him 
well, that a certain individual "was as honest as Jesus Christ; yes, as 
honest as Judge Mudd." He was, perhaps, the best poised man, intel- 
lectually, that the writer ever knew. He was not brilliant, but sound, 
safe, logical, deep, and practical. Give him twenty-four hours to investi- 
gate a case and his opinion would be almost infallible. 

He was succeeded by 5. H. Spratt, of Livingston, Ala., a compara- 
tively young man. The latter's term expired the first day of November, 
1886. He is a bright, active, energetic man, and his record as a judge 
was endorsed by his renomination for a second term. However, in redis- 
tricting the circuits in February, 1885, Jefferson was put into the Fifth 
Judicial Circuit. Le Roy F. Box was elected judge of this circuit in 
August, 1886, and will sit for the next six years. He is a lawyer of 
ability, and, with his clear perception and love of justice, does credit to 
the bench. He is hardly more than forty-six years old, and many years 
more of usefulness lie before him. 

The circuit court docket was getting sadly overcrowded, mainly on 
account of the rapid growth of the county, and in 1886 the city court of 
Birmingham, with common law and equity jurisdiction, was established. 
This court is in session the year round, with the exception of June and 
December. It has taken long strides toward relieving the circuit court, 
and it has almost absorbed the civil business of the county. The county 
was most fortunate in the selection of a judge for this court. Henry A. 
Sharpe was appointed by the Governor in December, 1884, and he was 
re-elected by the people in August, 1886, without opposition. Although 
under 40 years of age, he is a profound lawyer, and his administration of 
justice has given extraordinary satisfaction to the bar and to the people at 
large. He is dignified, painstaking, patient, courteous, and learned. 
While he is not a disciplinarian in the ordinary sense of the term, still he 



^4 Jeffcrso7i County. 

effects the same object by the esteem and confidence which he wins from 
the bar. Not one who practices before him could be induced to treat him 
with disrespect. His method may well be illustrated by a little incident 
that occurred during the present year. Two of the bar had become quite 
heated over a question "before the court and began to wrangle over it. He 
quietly reminded them that he would settle the matter if they would be 
seated. Their blood was up, and they found it difficult to desist from 
giving each other a few parting words. Apparently unmoved the judge 
quietly remarked, " Gentlemen, if you persist in this wrangling you will 
incur the displeasure of the court." That remark was "oil upon the 
troubled waters," and from that time on not a ripple occurred upon the 
current of the proceedings in the case. 

Since the civil war, chancery court has been held in this county, with 
the following named gentlemen on the bench, who presided in succession 
as named : J. B. Clarke, J. Q. Loomis, Wm. B. Woods, Charles Turner, 
and Thomas Cobbs. 

Chancellor Clarke was a man of marked ability, and had the finest dis- 
cipline in his court. He was painstaking, and his decisions exhibited pro- 
fundity of thought, extensive learning, and careful research. He was dis- 
placed by the Republicans in 1868, and was succeeded by Charles Turner, 
then of Selma, but formerly of Connecticut. He proved a worthy suc- 
cessor of even such a chancellor as Clarke. His ability to dispatch busi- 
ness was remarkable. Although not in political sympathy with the bar 
he soon won their respect. His mind was clear, and his love of justice 
dominated every other influence. 

He was succeeded in 1880 by Thomas Cobbs, of Livingston, Ala., 
who soon afterward removed to Birmingham, where he has ever since 
resided. He was a ripe lawyer, and by his exceptionally courteous bear- 
ing he soon won a high place in the esteem and affection of the bar. He, 
too, dispatches business with facility and ease, and the docket will never 
become crowded with Cobbs on the bench. So satisfactory was his admin- 
istration of the office that he was re-elected without opposition. He has 
just begun his second term, and will, therefore, hold for the next six years. 

The business of this court has been largely absorbed by the city court 
of Birmingham, because it sits continually and the chancery court sits but 
twice a year. Chancery business has largely increased in recent years. 
Some idea of its former insignificance may be derived from the fact that 
some twenty years ago the register had forgotten when his court would 
meet, and when the chancellor arrived the register had gone a-fishing with 
the docket in his pocket. It is hardly necessary to add that when he 



The Bench and Bar. 85 

returned he found the only business transacted was his own removal. 
However, no one considered it very seriously except the chancellor, for 
the bar, and especially the register (who was a noble, whole-souled old 
gentleman), treated the matter as the "best joke of the season." 

The probate court, formerly called county court, was first presided over 
by Peter Walker. He was a man of bright intellect and genial manners. 
He hailed from Virginia, and was a lawyer of moderate ability. He was suc- 
ceeded by John Brown, commonly known as "Red" Brown on account 
of his ruddy complexion, to distinguish him from the other John Browns 
in the county. Walker K. Baylor was next in succession. He was highly 
educated, but was not studious, and was not regarded as a profound law- 
yer. He afterward became circuit judge. In the fall of 1844 he came 
in from his circuit and was making preparations for visiting his brother in 
Texas. At that time Texas was a wild and turbulent country. His 
friends prevailed on him to carry with him a Colt revolver, then a very 
rare weapon and a great show to the people, few of whom had ever seen 
one. He said he had never owned or carried a pistol, and that he had 
bought that one against his better judgment. He seemed to have a pre- 
monition that it would, in some way, prove his own destruction. While 
showing it to his brother and other friends in Texas it was accidentally dis- 
charged and killed him. He was then about fifty years old and had never 
married. When he left Kentucky he parted from a pure, sweet girl, who 
was soon to become his wife. When he returned for her, her new-made 
grave was there to tell him if he would meet her it must be in heaven. 
He remained loyal to her to the last. He would take a "spree" of a 
few days every few months, and when about to "sober up" he would go 
with horse, dog and gun into the woods and remain a week or so, when 
he would return, as bright as a silver dollar, and then stick to business for 
several months. He could draw as sweet strains from the violin as ever 
issued from the throat of the sweetest warbler of the forest. Before he 
left for Texas he gave his violin to James Wilson, then and now one of 
Jefferson County's best citizens, to keep until they should meet again. 

Moses Kelly succeeded Judge Baylor. He was not a lawyer, but a 
man of fair native ability, which, however, had not been improved by a 
liberal education. But he was popular with the masses. 

Next in succession was W. L. Wilson, who now resides in Birming- 
ham and is still a leading citizen of the county. He was not " learned in 
the law," but, withal, was a man with good, practical sense, and performed 
his duty faithfully and well. 



86 Jefferson County. 

He was succeeded by John C. Morrow, who held the office about 
twenty years and resigned two years ago. He is a born Chesterfield, and 
it is safe to say no man can converse with him and not like him. In spite 
of the fact that he administered his office loosely, the people have always 
stood by him when he contested for their suffrages. On Judge Morrow's 
resignation the Governor appointed to fill the vacancy M. T. Porter, an 
exceptionally pure and upright man. He was elected without opposition 
in August, 1886, to succeed himself. He is a sound, safe lawyer, and is 
quite accurate in his rulings. He acts as county judge, to try the smaller 
grade of criminal offenses, which consumes a very large part of his time. 
This and the crowded condition of the court present very serious obstacles 
to a proper administration of his office. As a rule, it is the worthless 
man who has no enemies. This rule finds an exception in the life of Hon. 
M. T. Porter. A more worthy man or a truer citizen it would be hard, 
if not impossible, to find ; and yet perhaps the county might be searched 
from one end to the other without finding a single man to say aught 
against " Mitch " Porter. It used to be a favorite diversion with a former 
influential and humorous member of the Birmingham bar to try to put 
dissatisfied litigants to finding fault with Porter for some fancied wrong. 
Invariably the grumbler would say, "No, 'Mitch' Porter never did it; 
some of his associate counsel were the guilty parties." 

Courts are held throughout the county by justices of the peace, but 
these courts have little to do outside of Birmingham. But the business 
conducted by these officers in Birmingham is simply immense. Some of 
them often have fifty or sixty cases a month and their fees amount to 
$1,500 to $2,000 per annum each. ■ 

For some time after the formation of the county there was but little 
business in the courts, and the demand for legal services was filled by 
three or four legal practitioners and by several lawyers from adjoining 
counties. The earliest attainable data give the names of Thomas W. Far- 
rar, Francis Bugbee, Walker K. Baylor, and E. W. Peck as the lawyers 
composing the Jefferson County Bar. 

General Farrar came from North Carolina, and was about forty years 
old, corpulent, big-hearted, genial, and an epicure. No dinner party 
was complete without him. His appetite always relieved any deficiency 
of the caterer. He had little energy, but, withal, was a good lawyer. 

Francis Bugbee hailed from Connecticut. He was highly educated 
and cultivated, and for those times an excellent la\v'yer. He married Miss 
Lavinia Tarrant, of Jefferson County, in 1878, and soon afterward 
removed to Montgomery, Ala. 



The Bench and Bar. 87 

Walker K. Baylor was from Kentucky, as hereinbefore stated, being 
the same party alluded to above as circuit judge. 

E. W. Peck immigrated to the county in 1824 from the State of New 
York. At that period a law student had to study law seven years under the 
tutelage of a lawyer before he could be admitted to practice law, unless he 
was a graduate of some college or had pursued classical studies, in either of 
which cases the time might be reduced to three years, but not less — every 
year of classical study being counted as a part of the seven years, up to four 
years. Young Peck's education was obtained in the common schools of 
that day, supplemented by a three years' course in the academies of New 
York State. He began the study of law in 1 8 19, at the age of twenty 
years. He pursued his studies until 1824, when he was admitted to the 
bar and came South in quest of fame and fortune. He came with a young 
friend in a one-horse wagon (the vehicle now called buggy), and after 
traveling six weeks reached Huntsville, Ala. There he took a horse and 
started alone on horseback to Cahaba, then the capital of Alabama. He 
fell in with Simeon Streeter on the way, who advised him to locate at 
Elyton. He accepted his advice and stuck out his shingle in that little 
village. He was received with an old-time Southern hospitality. Writing 
of it years afterward he said : " I at once regarded myself as perma- 
nently located to do the best I could to make a living, and if possible to 
do something better. The people with whom I had cast my lot treated 
me with such real Southern cordiality and heartiness that it relieved me of 
many of my anxieties and troubles and inspired me with a good hope that 
my life among them would prove a success." The four years' training he 
had received begun to show its good fruits from the first, and, though quite 
young, he began to work right to the front. He was sober, industrious, 
and talented, and soon engaged the best practice at the bar. About that 
time Matthew W. Lindsay was solicitor, and he was one of the finest pros- 
ecuting officers the State of Alabama ever produced. He was a terror to 
evil doers. They feared him and yet they admired him. Generally, 
whenever they had to encounter his eloquence and logic, they would pit 
against him the wiry and gifted Peck. He continued to practice in Jeffer- 
son County until 1833, when he moved to Tuscaloosa, which had been 
made the capital of Alabama. Here he has ever since resided. In 186S 
he became chief justice of the supreme court, and his decisions were 
marked for learning and ability, especially on all questions of pleading. 

In 1825 Peter Walker, of Virginia, and John F. Forest, of North 
Carolina, moved to Elyton and practiced law together. They were good 



88 Jeffersoti County. 

men, but had indifferent success in their practice. Afterward each of 
them became judges of the county court. 

About the same year P. N. Wilson, a young lawyer from Tuscaloosa, 
settled in Elyton. He remained only a few years, when he removed to 
Sumter County, Ala. He was a young man of fine ability, and after- 
ward became one of the best lawyers in the State. 

Thomas A. Walker, a young lawyer, settled in Elyton about 1828, 
and practiced there several years. He was a man of fair abilities and 
great purity of character. He removed to Calhoun County, and was twice 
elected circuit judge. 

Wm. S. Mudd entered the professional arena in 1839, and met with 
phenomenal success. He has already received a notice in this sketch, 
and it only remains to add that he was for some years circuit solicitor and 
filled the position with credit. He had a great reputation as a collector. 
In those days merchants were nearly all solvent, but many of them were 
"slow." Mudd, on getting a claim, would at once remit the money to 
his clients and afterward collect from the tardy debtor. By this he 
attained two objects ; in the first place he pleased his clients and built up 
his business,, and in the second place he got interest on the money he had 
advanced and remitted. 

In 1851 M. T. Porter began the practice of law at Elyton, and met 
with considerable success. He continued to practice there until the 
county seat was removed to Birmingham. 

Alburto Martin, then a young man, removed to Elyton from Pickens 
County. He was a bright fellow and the soul of honor, and met 
with good success.- In 1857 ^^^ formed a partnership with M. T. Porter 
under the firm name of Porter & Martin, and they enjoyed a large prac- 
tice until Martin's death in 1879. Porter continued the practice alone 
for a few months, when he formed a partnership with his son, M. A. 
Porter. They practiced together until M. T. Porter was made judge of 
probate in 1884. 

In 1858 John C. Morrow and G. W. Hewitt, then young men, were 
admitted to the practice of law, and soon afterward formed a partner- 
ship under the firm name of Morrow & Hewitt. They practiced together 
about two years, when Morrow was elected probate judge. Hewitt con- 
tinued the practice until the civil war, in which he enlisted for the Con- 
federacy. After the war he resumed the practice, and met with great 
success. He has a vigorous intellect, and conducts his cases with skill. 

In 1867 W^ A. Walker was admitted to the bar, and Hewitt and he, 
in 1870, formed a partnership under the firm name of Hewitt & Walker, 



T!ie Bc?ich and Bar. 91 

and they practiced together until 1884, when they took into the firm M. 
A. Porter, and the firm is now known as Hewitt, Walker & Porter. V*'. 
A. Walker, Jr., is one of the best poised lawyers in the county. Take 
him any way you will and he is always found "level headed." He has 
the confidence of all the people. 

W. S. Earnest began the practice of law at Elyton about 18 — , and 
continued the practice until his death in 1S82. He was a warm-hearted, 
genial man, but loved his fun and did not " stick close " to his professional 
duties. 

In 1872-73 there came to Birmingham the following lawyers : R. H. 
Henley, R. H. Pearson, George S. Cox, H. A. Young, Eugene McCaa, 
E. L,' Clarkson, John T. Terry, W. W. Moore, E. K. Fulton, W. 
W. Shortridge, and A. O. Lane. Henley was a brilliant man, but 
was in wretched health, and soon died. Pearson walked into a good prac- 
tice from the start, and his professional life has been a great success. 
He is a sound lawyer, a close student. He has fine personal magnetism, 
which, with his native talent and loyalty to his profession, will always 
insure him a large practice. 

Eugene McCaa was a brilliant man, but he was in Birmingham onl)- 
a few months when he returned to Marengo County. 

John T. Terry was a man of great native ability, and for years he 
enjoyed a fine practice. He was a safe counselor, and few lawyers had 
greater strength before a jury. Latterly he did not devote much time to 
his profession ; warm-hearted and genial, he spent most of his time in 
social intercourse with his friends. Being a fine conversationalist, he had 
many friends seeking his companionship. Having formed a partnership 
with A. O. Lane in 1874, they practiced together until 1885, when Col. 
Terry retired from the practice, having accumulated a fortune. 

W. W. Moore was a warm-hearted, genial young gentleman ; but his 
health was most wretched, and he was unable to devote himself to stud}- 
and research. Consumption carried him away in 1879. A nobler citizen 
or a truer friend never lived. 

James E. Hawkins, a native of this county, was admitted to the bar 
in 1872. He practiced here for about two years when he removed to 
Shelby County, and after remaining there one year he returned to Bir- 
mingham. He is a gentleman of great, good humor and pleasing address, 
and a fluent speaker. He is solicitor for the city court of Birmingham, 
and discharges his duty with credit to himself and satisfaction to the 
public. 



92 Jeffei^soJi Comity. 

E. K. Fulton came to this city from Sumter County in 1873. He 
has enjoyed a liberal practice, and is always faithful to the interests of his 
clients. 

John J. Jolly began the practice here in 1874, having come from 
Eutaw, Ala. Already possessing a good reputation as a fluent and 
attractive speaker, he commanded a large practice from the start. His 
health failed him and he returned to Green County in 1877. 

E. L. Clarkson began the practice in Birmingham in 1873. He sus- 
tained himself well as a young lawyer of research, clear perception, and stu- 
diousness. He practiced here until 1878, when he removed to Green 
Count)', where he remained for two or three years. He then resumed the 
practice here, and has sustained a Hberal patronage to the present time. 

Ellis Phelan began the practice at Elyton in 1 871, and enjoyed a good 
practice for several years, when he was elected secretary of state and 
removed to Montgomery. He is a man of sterling worth, but has not 
much taste for his chosen profession. No man has ever possessed more 
completely the confidence of the people. 

R. A. McAdory began the practice at Elyton in 1870, and while 
possessing a fine mind he had little inclination to law and abandoned the 
profession in 1883. 

J. M. Russell was admitted to the bar in 1877 at Birmingham, where 
he has since practiced. By his indomitable energy he has amassed con- 
siderable means. 

W. W. Shortridge was a bright young man, but he remained in Jeffer- 
son County too short a time to work himself into practice. He returned 
to Shelby in 1873. 

This brings the history of the bar down to within the last four or five 
years, and as the number of lawyers has increased to nearly one hundred 
the limits of this sketch will not allow of anything more than to give 
their names, whence they came, and their length of residence in this 
city and practice at this bar. 



The Bencli and Bar. 93 



MEMBERS OF THE BIRMINGHAM BAR, 

No. Years 
Names. Where From. in Birmingham, 

E. T. Taliaferro Fort Smith, Ark 2 

B. H. Tabor Fort Smith, Ark i 

M. A. Porter Elyton, Ala 4 

C. F. Eastman Rappahannock County, Va. . .3 

W. E. Martin Columbus, Miss 3 

Robert Hagood Elyton, Ala 6 mos. 

Jas. E. Webb Greensboro, Ala 2 

J. P. Tillman Selma, Ala 2 

D. D. Smith Randolph County, Ala. ... 4 

R. J. Lowe Huntsville, Ala 5 

C. A. Mountjoy King George County, Va. . . 5 

Jno. W. Tomlinson Tate Springs, Tenn 3 

Jno. D. Strange Ashville, Ala 8 

J. J. Altman Livingston, Ala 6 

J. B. Earle, Jr Birmingham, Ala i 

J. J. Garrett Greensboro, Ala 4 

O. W. Underwood Louisville, Ky 2 

J. M. Gillespie Jonesboro, Ala .7 

E. J. Smeyer Cherokee County, Ala. ... 4 

J. P. Stiles Columbus, Miss 4 

R. H. Sterrett Selma, Ala 4 

W. C. Ward Selma, Ala 2 

J. W. Chamblee Ashville, Ala 6 

W. T. Poe . . . . ' Greensboro, Ala i 

J. J. Banks Union Springs, Ala i 

B. M. Allen Greensboro, Ala 4 

E. K. Campbell Abingdon, Va 2 

Jno. T. Heflin, the nestor of the bar, Talladega, Ala 5 

M. J. Gregg Greenville, Tenn 6 

W. J. Cahalen Birmingham, Ala 7 

D. F. Myers Augusta, Ga 6 mos. 

W, O. Berryman Georgetown, Ky. ... 6 mos. 

R. C. Redus Columbus, Miss 6 mos. 

S. E. Greene Elyton, Ala 6 

S. L. Weaver Warrior, Ala 3 

H. C. Selheimer Pittsburg, Pa 2 



94 Jefferson Comity. 

L. C. Dickey Greensboro, Ala 2 

J. F. Gillespie Decatur, Ala i 

J. M. Martin Tuscaloosa, Ala 4 mos. 

J. S. McEachin Tuscaloosa, Ala 3 mos. 

J. M. Vanhoose Tuscaloosa, Ala i 

Walker Percy Greenville, Miss i 

W. M. Brooks Selma, Ala 3 mos. 

Jno. Vary Marion, Ala 2 

Leigh Carroll New Orleans i 

Joseph Carroll New Orleans I 

James Weatherly Montgomery, Ala 4 

Samuel P. Putnam Pulaski, Tenn 2 

W. W. Wilkerson Union Springs, Ala i 

N. B. Feagin Anniston, Ala 6 mos. 

W. B. Mitchell Georgetown, Ky i 

B. L. Hibbard Mobile, Ala 9 mos. 

C. A. Senn Graniteville, S. C 3 

W. M. Bethea Talladega, Ala 3 

F. B. Hemphill Tuscaloosa, Ala i 

Geo. P. Zimmerman Pensacola, Fla i 

G. R. Horst Nashville, Tenn i 

Frank S. White Mississippi 6 mos 

H. Patty Mississippi 6 mos 

Robert P. Duncan Clarksdale, Miss. ... 6 mos 

Most of the above named are young men, and it may safely be said 
that no bar in the co^. '^•y can produce a set of more sober, industrious, 
energetic, active, brainy young lawyers. Many of them are able lawyers 
already, and still others need nothing more than experience and age to 

insure them fame and fortune. 




'^^'/''^yy>'^/f//^^ "-»'-'.'- 



J\)e /r\edieal profession. 



JOHN D. S. i)AVIS, M. D. 



CHAPTER V 



The medical history of Jones Valley dates from the year 1819, one 
year previous to the formation of Jefferson County. Until the year 181 5 
the territory of Jefferson County was known as the favorite hunting 
ground of a few Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee Indians, who lived on the 
banks of the Warrior and Cahaba Rivers. If these Indians had their 
medicine man, the war records give no account of him. About the year 
18 1 5, a small party of whites made the first settlement near old Jones- 
boro, about twelve miles south-west of Birmingham, and began the 
development of the Valley, which took its name from one of the settlers. 
Until the year 18 19, when a member of the party would become ill some 
one of his friends would administer a purgative or bleed him, and leave 
him to Nature for the rest. In the year 18 19, Dr. Peyton King, a grad- 
uate of the University of Pennsylvania, located near old Jonesboro and 
began the practice of his profession. He continued to practice in that 
section until the year 1833, when he emigrated to Pickens County, Ala- 
bama. Dr. James Keller was the first to locate in the Valley after the 
formation of Jefferson County in the year 1820. He located near the 
Smith place, where Wheeling is now situated. He was a first-course 
student from Lexington, Ky., and never took a second course of lectures. 
He did a large practice in that section for twenty years. 



fefferso)i Coioity. 

Of the successful practitioners of medicine in Jefferson County during 
the early history of the county, who were non-graduates of medicine, 
were Drs. Samuel S. Earle, of Elyton, and Daniel Davis, of Davis Place. 
The first of these, Dr. Samuel S. Earle, attended one course of lectures 
at the University of Pennsylvania in the winter of i8 18-19. ^^ '^^^ ^ 
native South Carolinian, of honorable birth and good education. He was 
one of the most prominent citizens of the county for fifty years. He 
was born in 1799, and came to Alabama in 1820. He represented the 
county in the legislature in the years 1832-42. His high literary attain- 
ments, his polished manner, his practical good sense, and many excellen- 
cies of character soon gave him prominence. The Elyton Sun of Dec. 
21, 1870, contained the following on his death : " Dr. Earle died Tuesday, 
the 20th of December, at 7 o'clock p. m. Dr. Earle has been for fifty 
years past the most prominent citizen of Jefferson County, and his death 
obliterates one of the very few landmarks which now connect the present 
with the far-distant past of fifty years. He was a man of grace, of cul- 
ture, of literary attainments unusual, of rare medical skill and science, 
and of qualities of both head and heart that rendered him a distinguished 
and exceptional man in any land and amongst any people. * * * He 
lived to the ripe old age of seventy-one years, and his death was caused 
more from worn-out nature than from any specific disease." It was said 
of him by the rich, the poor, the high, the low, the good and bad, that 
"he was to all alike." Though he had but poor advantages in the prose- 
cution of his studies in medicine, he never remained idle or lingered in 
the field of study and investigation until his knowledge of medicine was 
unexceptionally thorough. In the practice of his profession he was hon- 
orable, in politics he was noted as fair and correct, and in private life a 
congenial companion. His conversational powers were exceptional. 
Having a brain guided by a pure heart he truly lived a life of honor and 
usefulness. Brewer's Sketch of Public Men of Alabama closes the sketch 
of his life in these words: "To add greater honor to his age than man 
could give him, he died fearing God." 

The last of the men of this period was Dr. Daniel Davis. Dr. Davis 
moved to Alabama from North Carolina in the year 1818, and settled in 
Tuscaloosa. In 1820 he returned to South Carolina to marry. After 
his marriage he came to Tuscaloosa, where he began the practice of m.edi- 
cine, after a course of home study. He came to Jefferson County in the 
year 1822, and did a successful practice until the year 1844. He was one 
of the pioneers of this country. He left a home of culture, luxury, and 
ease to cast his lot with the adventurist — I say adventurist, for it was- 



Tlie Medical Profession. 99 

nothing less. In Alabama, with his cultivation, in the midst of a new and 
ambitious people, he applied the skill of his ingenuity to the development 
of the country. It was not his pleasure to practice, nor was it a neces- 
sity, as he had of money, lands, and negroes a sufficiency, and far beyond 
that possible for his professional income to supply ; but realizing the great 
need of medical aid in the country to direct hygienic regulations and to 
administer to the suffering, he was, from a sense of duty to his friends, 
persuaded by them to resume the practice of medicine in Jefferson 
County. And he gave it his time and study as though his living was in 
it. He was popular among his medical associates, and no greater eulogy 
can be paid to his memory than the words uttered by Dr. Jos. R. Smith, 
while in conversation with the writer a few days ago. Dr. Smith said : 
" Dr. Davis was the young man's friend and the people's servant. When 
I came to the county in 1841 he was doing the practice of the neighbor- 
hood gratis. He gave me my first case at Bucksville, and aided me in 
my first attempt at surgery in the dressing of a fracture of the neck of 
the femur, in which he gave me the consideration which he would have 
accorded to any surgeon in the land." Once a young man, he knew the 
feelings of an aspiring boy, and never failed to assist him. This was not 
confined to his profession alone, but was evinced many times in other 
fields. I remember one occasion (as related to me) when a nephew left 
his father's home, in an Eastern State, Mr. Davis received a letter from 
his sister requesting him to refuse her son shelter and force his return 
home. The boy sneakingly approached the house of Dr. Davis, and 
when discovered Dr. Davis opened his arms and home and took the boy 
in with a loving, familiar and fatherly " God bless you." It was so differ- 
ent to the reception which he had been in the habit of receiving that he 
was inspired to new effort, and receiving an education at the hands of Dr. 
Davis became a very successful physician, and when he died at the age 
of forty years he left an estate worth over $200,000. Dr. Davis was 
widely renowned for his extensive knowledge and profound learning. In 
another department of this work will be paid a tribute to his intellect and 
culture, more fitting than can naturally be expected of a grandson. Of 
a large family of sons and daughters, he had two sons to select the chosen 
profession of their father. The elder, Elias, was the father of Drs. J. D. 
S. and W. E. B. Davis, now of Birmingham, and the younger, Ralph, 
now resides at Montevallo, Alabama, and is doing a large practice. Dr. 
Davis' ancestry dates back to Dr. Daniel Davis, a Welshman by birth, 
who practiced medicine in London, England, during the sixteenth cen- 
tury. To meet Dr. Davis was not only to see the polished exterior of a 



Jefferson County. 

gentleman, but to soon learn that he was in truth a gentleman. In the 
year 1861 he fell from the platform of his plantation ginhouse and broke 
his right forearm, from the effects of which he never recovered. He was 
characterized with the faith of a true believer in Christ, and ever rejoiced 
in a hope of the future. From pneumonia, on the 12th of July, 1S69, 
like the full blown leaf that has lived and fluttered away its spring and 
summer, and has lived out its full life drops in autumn, draped in gor- 
geous funeral robings, like the fruit which has ripened and fell, he passed 
away to the realms beyond. 

Dr. John Spearman Edwards came to this county in the year 1830 
to engage in the practice of medicine. He located at Elyton, and soon 
afterward removed to Trussville, twelve miles north-east of Birmingham. 
He was one of the wealthiest men in North Alabama, of good South 
Carolina birth, of fine education and pleasing address. He was a true 
type of manhood, culture, and honor. Soon after beginning the practice 
of medicine in Alabama his health gave way, and he retired from the 
active service of professional and business life. He had four children, 
one son and three daughters. The son, Merideth, a respected farmer, 
still lives at Trussville, and has a son. Dr. R. S. Edwards, who has selected 
the profession of his grandfather; the eldest daughter, Georgiana, died at 
the age of fourteen years ; the second daughter, Pollie, married George 
Robinson, and had a son, Dr. J. B. Robinson, of Woodlawn, Alabama, 
to follow in the footprints of his ancestor; the youngest daughter, Rhoda 
T. , married Sinkler Lathem, of South CaroHna, and left a family of three 
children, a son and two daughters — John E. T. Lathem, a planter, mar- 
ried the granddaughter of Dr. Zachariah Hagood, of this county ; the 
eldest daughter, Sarah T., married Dyer Talley, and after a widowhood 
of fifteen years from his death she married Alfred Griffin, and both died 
in the year 1885 ; the youngest daughter, Rhoda Georgiana, married Dr. 
Elias Davis, the son of Dr. Daniel Davis, and is the mother of the Drs. 
J. D. S. Davis and W. E. B. Davis, of Birmingham. Dr. Edwards came 
to Alabama to invest his wealth and to practice his profession. He was 
simple, yet brilliant in literature and in science ; he was pure, and ever 
held up a high standard of medical ethics; he was practical as well as 
theoretical. Though prevented, by reason of bad health, from following 
the profession of his selection, he did not fail to stamp his impress upon 
the profession of that age. Many of his papers on medical subjects are 
now in the library of his great-grandsons, the Drs. Davis, in Birmingham. 
They show the results of a progressive, investigative, and logical mind. 
Dr. Edwards was born January ist, 1791. and died January i8th, 1841. 




^'^ 



Tlie Medical Profession. 103 

The following are the names of the physicians who practiced in the 
county before the year 1850: Dr. Nimrod Randolph (non-graduate), who 
was located four miles south-west of Birmingham at a place called Car- 
rollsville, the county seat, now known as the Mrs. Nabor's place. He 
practiced from 1823 to 1827. He died in the year 1829. Dr. William 
English (non-graduate) came to the county in the year 1830, and removed 
after one year to Talledega, Alabama. Dr. VVeaks practiced in the 
■county from 1843 to 1845. Dr. Jones Hay from 1843 to 1856. Dr. 
Lipsicum at Jonesboro from 1841 to 1842. Dr. Bagsdale on Cahaba 
River, near the place of the old Indian town called " Mudd Town," in 
the year 1850, and afterward practiced in St. Clair a number of years, 
and then returned to Trussville in the year 1864, and remained until the 
year 1870, when he went to Texas and died of malarial fever. Dr. Zacha- 
riah Hagood lived and practiced at Hagood's Crossroads, in the north-east- 
ern part of Jefferson during the years from 1840 to 1856. 

It now becomes my duty to record the history of Dr. Jos. R. Smith, 
the most remarkable practitioner and successful business man this county 
has ever been blessed with. It is no desire of the writer to attempt any- 
thing like fulsome laudation of a friend, nor is this a tribute presented 
with the hope of adding to the fame of one whose life has been devoted 
to active, fruitful industry in usefulness to his fellowmen, governed by a 
singlemindedness to truth, and unswerving fidelity to the discharge of 
every duty pertaining to his position as a citizen, a genuine philanthropist, 
and a much-beloved and highly-accomplished physician. Dr. Smith's 
fame is written in the annals of scientific medicine, and though retired he 
yet exerts an influence upon the members of the profession which he has 
done so much to advance. In him we find a rare type of exalted man- 
hood. My father. Dr. Elias Davis, once s^id of him, "He is honor," 
and he spoke the whole truth. Dr. Smith graduated at the Transylvania 
Medical College of Lexington, Ky., in the year 1841. He was given his 
first case by Dr. Daniel Davis, whom Dr. Smith ever recognized as a 
friend and honored companion. Dr. Smith attended a course of lectures 
in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the winter of 1846, and during the Mexi- 
can war he was present and saw Generals Scott and Butler leave the St. 
Charles Hotel for Mexico. Dr. Smith was very successful in the practice 
of his profession, and performed many operations in surgery. His sound, 
practical method of dealing with all cases, together with his success as an 
operator, gave him the reputation of the surgeon of the county. Dr. 
Smith is truly a medical philosopher. A mere glance at the list of his 
contributions to medical literature will show the versatility of his genius. 



I04 Jefferson County. 

Most of his papers are to be found in the volumes of the Western Lancet 
and New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. The following papers 
were from his pen: "Typhoid Fever and its Treatment, with reference 
to an epidemic which prevailed in Elyton and vicinity during the spring 
of 1858," "Iodine in Snake Bite," "Removal of an Iron Scale from the 
Eye by Chemical Solution," " Notes of a case of Dropsy, where paracen- 
tesis abdominis was performed, and after the operation a silver tube 
introduced," and others. In the practice of medicine he was noted for 
his unmeasured scorn and contempt for the impostor and polypharmacist. 
In the study of the natural history of disease he was a very close observer, 
and possessing a strong and analytical mind naturally became the leader 
of the profession in the county. Every prescription he made was with a 
definite purpose, guided by a remarkably charming simplicity, and may 
he live to see the "shot-gun" prescription of modern times buried 
beneath the slow lashing waves of oblivion. As a citizen his life has been 
one of exemplary habits ; of this, however, the reader will learn more 
from another department of this work. There are few men in this county 
who have become so endeared to the people as Dr. Smith. May he live 
long and enjoy the wealth of his toil, the experience of his age, and feast 
on the hope for the future. 

Dr. Elias Davis, a son of Dr. Daniel Davis, read medicine at Elyton 
with Dr. Joseph R. Smith in 1852-53, and graduated from the 
Medical College of Georgia in 1856, and located at Trussville, where he did 
a large and successful plantation practice until the year 1861, when he 
volunteered for the Confederate service. In all things Dr. Davis was a 
man of marked independence and fearlessness — not that so-called inde- 
pendence and fearlessness which manifest themselves in acts of turbulence 
and indifference to public opinion, right or wrong, but they were of that 
character which animate chivalrous manhood and dare to brave public 
censure when panoplied with truth and right. In the secession move- 
ment of 1 86 1 he promptly offered his services to the Confederate Govern- 
ment and went on duty. It was said of him by the Rev. Dr. J. J. D. 
Renfro, Chaplain of the Tenth Alabama Regiment: "He discharged his 
duties with an efficiency and noble daring unsurpassed by any son from 
Alabama. * * * Many hard-fought battles all conspire to attest his 
devotion to the cause and his gallantry in action." 

While an eminent and dearly-beloved physician, he possessed a mind 
of varied and rare endowments for philosophy and history. His assiduous 
and systematic study during the years of his college course and short pro- 
fessional career made him quite proficient in these branches as well as in 




c/ui - }l^c^---,Ji/^-a-yL^ ^(^ . oc/- 




Tlie Medical Profession. 107 

medicine. He was a surgeon of no small ability, and had an unmeasured 
contempt for the surgical jobber — dexterous in using the knife, but ignor- 
ant of the higher and better parts of the science. During his private 
career as a practitioner of medicine and surgery, as well as when called 
upon to serve his poor wounded companions, he. was never known to 
attempt the so-called brilliant operations, but he proceeded under all cir- 
cumstances slowly, with a conscientious view to the best interest of the 
patient. He would make all possible preparation, and then taking the 
knife would proceed slowly and systematically to the work, the results 
showing a marvelous skill. He never contributed to medical periodicals, 
but he left in his library many valuable papers. These papers, which 
were the fruits of a clear, logical, and analytical mind, prove the constant 
and steady progress of the student and physician. His papers have been 
bound, and are in the library of his only sons, Drs. J. D. S. and \V. E. 
B. Davis, of Birmingham. 

He never made merchandise of principles in order that popular 
approval might signalize his efforts. He was benevolent, and his donations 
to charitable institutions were always liberal. He was ever ready and 
willing to help the needy, and it is remarkable, nevertheless true, that no 
applicant for aid ever left his presence unprovided for. He was warm- 
hearted, friendly, hospitable, and generous to a fault. In his treatment 
of classes he displayed to all alike such a gentleness, tenderness, and sym- 
pathy that the patient soon saw that he was in the hands of a wise, 
prudent, and considerate friend. He delighted in argument, and was 
always prepared to maintain a thesis, and above all a paradox, with logic 
which few could answer and wit which fewer could emulate. He seldom 
failed to conquer, but perhaps, almost as rarely to convince. He was 
eager to persuade, and hard to be persuaded. Though somew^hat impulsive, 
his wit was such as "loves to play, not wound," and an antagonist left 
him with increased esteem and respect. 

In the year 1857 he was married to Miss Rhoda Georgiana Lathem, 
whose ambition for his success was unexcelled in the history of the true 
Southern women. No loftier type of honor ever blended than in this 
marriage. Miss Mary Gordon Duffee's tribute to Mrs. Davis' memory 
and devotion to her love is beautiful and true : "She was in her youthful 
days ' divinely tall and most divinely fair,' with a modest timidity of man- 
ner peculiarly becoming and graceful, and the kindest of hearts. Two 
little boys were left her by the war that made them fatherless, and set the 
chrism of perpetual heartache and regret upon her fair young brow. She 
has watched and wept over their lives, and trained them up to the worthy 



1 08 Jefferson CoiDity. 

standard of their noble sire, until now they stand forth on the threshold 
of a superb and useful manhood as physicians of Birmingham, alike 
noted for their morality as for their talent and culture. Truly, she is a 
widow indeed, rich in patience and resignation ; steadfast in the faith of 
the saints, prayerful and strong in works of charity, like those few right- 
eous ones who have kept their souls clear, ' and shall walk with him in 
white.' " 

On the 2ist of August, 1864, while commanding a company of a 
battalion of sharpshooters of the Tenth Alabama Regiment in that bloody 
battle on the Weldon Railroad, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
he was snatched from the din of battle and from the career of a Confed- 
erate soldier to appear before the Great Physician and Officer beyond, 

" Where the Great Physician heals. 
Where the Heavenly armies sing." 

Dr. Renfro says he was "a man of fine native mind, a well-informed 
and accomplished physician and gentleman, a man of fine personal appear- 
ance, a brave soldier, a competent and faithful, yet mild and affectionate 
officer, and, above all, a meek and devout Christian. It was not aston- 
ishing that he was the pride and idol of his company, that he was honored 
by the regiment, and that he died leaving his praise in the mouths of all 
who knew him." 

Dr. Francis M. Marshall read medicine under Dr. Rufus Haywood, 
of Tuscaloosa, in the year 1849; graduated from the University of 
Louisiana in New Orleans in the year 1852 ; located at Trussville in 1852, 
and did a good practice for twelve years with assiduity and success. In 
the year i860 he moved to Hagood's Crossroads, where he continued 
his practice for four or five years. Early after his removal to Hagood's 
Crossroads his health began to give way, and he gave up the practice 
of medicine. Since that time he has taught school when in a state of 
health to allow. He is a natural poet, and his song on "The Lost Life," 
in stately verse, gives true evidence that in this poem he mastered the 
" stately verse " as completely as did Byron. In the failure of his health 
the people have lost a benefactor, and the profession a ray of genius which 
would have reflected its light into remote ages. But the arm of 
disease and family troubles have stretched their gigantic forms to blast 
and darken a brilliant and prosperous career. His life has been one of 
adventure and disaster, upon which volumes could be written. In all his 
misfortunes and troubles he has held himself aloof from the corruption of 
the world, and is untouched by the stain of dishonor. His health is much 



Tlie Medical Profession. 109 

improved, and it is to be hoped that he will yet be in a condition to reach 
that acme of fame he so much desired. 

Dr. G. T. Deason practiced at Elyton from 1859 to 1861, when he 
joined the Confederate army. After the war he returned to Elyton and 
practiced until his death, which was caused by small-pox. 

Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins graduated from the University of New York 
in the year 1846, and practiced at Elyton from 1847 to 1877, the year of 
his death. He was a successful practitioner. 

Dr. James E. Kent came to Jefferson County from Selma, Ala., in 
the year 1874, and located at Oxmoor. He did a large country practice 
for two years. He represented the county in the legislature two years. 
He died in the year 1882 in Birmingham. 

Dr. J. B. Vann graduated from the University of Louisiana at New 
Orleans in the year i860. He practiced in Montevallo, Ala., about six 
months, at Trussville about six months, and then located at Elyton, where 
he practiced successfully for fifteen years, and had to retire to farm life 
on account of bad health. In 1885 he came to Birmingham and went 
into the undertaking business. He is now in the real estate business in 
Birmingham. 

Dr. Ralph Davis, a son of Dr. Daniel Davis, graduated from the 
Medical College of Georgia in the year 1858, and practiced a few years 
in Jefferson County, about fourteen miles south-west of Birmingham. He 
is now doing a large and successful practice at Montevallo, Ala. 

The first medical society organized in the county was formed in the 
year 1865, with Dr. Joseph R. Smith President, and Dr. G. T. Deason 
Secretary. In 1869 the Jefferson County Medical Society was organ- 
ized under the old constitution, with Dr. F. M. Prince, of Jonesboro, 
President, and Dr. R. N. Hawkins, now of Shelby County, Secretary. 
The organization did but little more until the year 1873. It was revived 
to active work during the cholera epidemic. The members of the society 
did faithful and honorable service in the relief of suffering humanity in 
Birmingham. The society records and transactions of the Medical Asso- 
ciation of Alabama can show the true activity of this .society at the time. 
I cannot pass this period in the history of the profession without making 
honorable mention of the heroes who stood the test during the cholera 
epidemic of 1873 in Birmingham. Some of these were Drs. J. B. Luckie, 
J. VV. Sears, M. H. Jordan, and W. P. Taylor, deceased. The latter 
mentioned gentleman, who worked in concert with his co-laborers in 
that fearful scourge of 1873, died at his home in Birmingham in the year 
1883. He was a man of remarkable culture, and of that polished gentle- 



Jeffe7'Son County. 

manly appearance and gallant bearing that won for him friends among 
every class of people. The other three have been honored and exalted 
by the people and profession from time to time. They still live to enjoy 
the praises of an appreciative people. 

Dr. Sears has been President of the Board of Medical Examiners of 
Jefferson County for nearly ten years. 

Dr. Luckie has been a member of said board, and filled the position 
with dignity and impartiality. He represented the county in the State 
Senate in 1881-82. While in the Senate he made no offensi%'e display of 
learning; no dogmatic prejudices, pedantr}', or egotism ever deformed 
his character. He developed no adventurous spirit, but, on the contrary, 
that conservatism that would safely keep and justly administer what was 
already achieved. It was mainly through his efforts that a bill was passed 
through the legislature of Alabama authorizing Birmingham to issue bonds 
for sewerage, and the present system of sewerage in Birmingham was 
introduced by him. When representing the people he was just to 
the country, just to himself, and just to his office. He was defeated 
for the mayoralty in Birmingham in 1886 by Hon. A. O. Lane. 
We feel that if he had been elected he would have treaded the walks 
•of such a station with true judicial dignity, proving himself just and 
honorable. 

Dr. Jordan has filled every office in the Jefferson County Medical 
Society, been a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners, and 
was made president of the Medical Association of Alabama in 1883. He 
has made many valuable contributions to medical literature. In October, 
1886, he was elected to the Chair of Materia Medica in the Alabama 
Medical College at Mobile, Ala. He has ever been an earnest man, with 
an earnest work to do. He is a social favorite, and full of humor. To be 
associated with him is to be pried up by his witticisms, be shocked with 
laughter until your eyes are closed, sides split, and prayers offered for a 
solid brace to prevent an explosion. He is a hard worker, and while 
much of his time is spent in serving jokes in all kinds of dishes, with 
them we see the foaming, sparkling crest of the ocean that carries upon 
its bosom a magnificent cargo. He is a very entertaining man, and we 
trust that as he goes from us to refresh and build up his feeble constitu- 
ti onin the institution of medical learning in Mobile he will help mold and 
shape the hearts and intellects of Alabama's medical students. 

In the year 1873 Dr. J. W. Sears was elected President of Jefferson 
County Medical Society, and Dr. M. H. Jordan Secretary. Dr. Sears 
filled the chair of President until 1879, and Dr. Jordan remained Secretary 



Tiie Medical Professiofi. 

until the year 1878, when S. M. Gillespie, Ph. D., was elected to serve 
until the year 1879. 

In the year 1879 D""- ^^- P- Taylor was elected President and Dr. 
W. H. Cook Secretary. This last election was under the new constitu- 
tion of the Medical Association of Alabama. Dr. Taylor remained 
President until the year 1881. Dr. Cook was Secretary one year, and 
Dr. S. L. Ledbetter was elected for the year 1880. 

In the year 1881 Dr. M. H. Jordan was made President and Dr. 
Ledbetter reelected Secretary. Dr. Jordan remained President until 
1883, when Dr. Henry N. Rosser was elected to the Presidency and Dr. 
Ledbetter reelected Secretary. 

In 1884 — Dr. H. P. Cochran, President; Dr. A. J. Douglass, Sec- 
retary. 

In 1885— Dr. J. C. Dozier, President; Dr. B. G. Copeland, Sec- 
retary. 

In 1886— Dr. Charles Whelan, President; Dr. E. P. Earle, Secretary. 

In 1887— Dr. John D. S. Davis, President; Dr. R. L. Wyman, 
Secretary. 

THE ALABAMA SURGICAL AND GYNECOLOGICAL 
ASSOCIATION. 

The above Association was organized December 15, 1886, in Bir- 
mingham. 

In November, 1886, in the office of the Drs. Davis, Dr. Henry N. 
Rosser and Drs. J, D. S. Davis and W. E. B. Davis, in consultation, 
decided to organize an association to advance the science of Surgery and 
Gynecology in Alabama and the South. These three gentlemen called a 
meeting of a few of the physicians of Birmingham and Pratt Mines to 
take the preliminary steps to organize such an association necessary to 
advance these sciences. An enthusiastic meeting was held November 14, 
1886, and a temporary organization was effected by the election of Dr. 
H. N. Rosser, of Birmingham, Chairman, and Dr. W. E. B. Davis, of 
Birmingham, Secretary. December 15, 1886, was the day appointed for 
permanent organization. The association was organized and elected the 
following officers, committees, and honorary members : 

Drs, H. N. Rosser, of Birmingham, President ; C. Toxey, of Mobile, 
First Vice-President ; Benjamin H. Riggs, of Selma, Second Vice-Presi- 
dent; W. E. B. Davis, of Birmingham, Secretary; H. P. Cochran, of Bir- 
mingham, Treasurer. 



Jejferson Co?tnty. 

Orator for the next annual convention, Benjamin J. Baldwin, of 
Montgomery. 

Judicial Council — J. D. S. Davis, Birmingham, for five years ; J. F. 
Heustis, Mobile, for four years ; J. H. McCarty, Birmingham, for three 
years ; R. D. Webb, Livingston, two years ; Benjamin H. Riggs. Selma, 
one year. 

Publication Committee — W. E. B. Davis, Birmingham ; Peter Bryce, 
Tuscaloosa; Benjamin J. Baldwin, Montgomery. 

Committee on Arrangements — J. B. Luckie, B, G. Copeland, E. H. 
Sholl, of Birmingham. 

Committee on Voluntary Essays — Peter Bryce, Tuscaloosa ; C. 
Toxey, Mobile; W. Locke Chew, Birmingham; Benjamin H. Riggs, 
Selma ; Frank Prince, Jonesboro. 

Essayists for Next Convention — J. F. Heustis, Mobile; Charles 
Whelan, Birmingham; John C. Parham, Gainesville; O. L. Shivers, 
Marion ; J. R. Hoffman, Athens. 

Committee to Obtain a Charter — Frank Prince, J. B. Luckie, C. 
Toxey. 

Honorary Members — Robert Battey, Rome, Ga. ; H. F. Campbell, 
Augusta, Ga. ; W. F. Westmoreland, V. N. Taliaferro, Wm. Abram 
Love, Atlanta, Ga.; W. T. Briggs, Duncan Eve, W. D. Haggard, Nash- 
ville, Tenn.; D. W. Yandell, W. H. Wathen, Louisville, Ky.; Dr. Maury, 
Memphis, Tenn.; J. F. Y. Payne, Galveston, Te.xas ; A. B. Miles, E. S. 
Lewis, New Orleans, La. 

The following letter to Drs. J. D. S. and W. E. B. Davis, editors 
of The Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal, December, 1886, gives 
good evidence of the thorough work being done by the profession in 
Jefferson County : 

" Editors Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal : When I 
received the first number of your valuable journal last July, I predicted 
for Alabama a new era in her medical literature. That prediction is 
beginning to be realized. In the November issue of the Journal I see a 
notice of the temporary organization of the Alabama Surgical and 
Gynecological Association. Originating in the office of The Alabama 
Medical and Surgical Journal, and supported by such surgeons and 
gynecologists as Birmingham affords, means much for these sciences in 
Alabama. It is apparent that these branches have long been neglected 
in Alabama, and while our State Medical Association, from year to year, 
gives us some valuable contributions to medical literature, very little is 
said and done for the sciences of surgery and gynecology. No profession 



The Medical Profcssioft. 113 

in the Union is so well organized as Alabama's, and yet the medical 
literature of Alabama is far in the rear. The founding of the Journal 
for Alabama was the stepping-stone to her future attainments. Evidently 
so, for, as a result of that move, we have the Surgical and Gynecological 
Association. I congratulate the originators of this Association for invit- 
ing only fifty of Alabama's doctors to become charter members. It is 
too often the case that a new organization is stagnated by the too large- 
ness of its membership. With the contemplated charter membership of 
fifty plans can be perfected for a grand and glorious work for Alabama 
doctors. I infer from your notice that the membership will not be 
restricted to numbers, but to qualification, which, I think, is a display of 
wisdom and policy. The selection made for the charter membership is as 
good as possible to make it. 

I feel honored and flattered to be remembered in the invitation 
extended by the committee on membership. I am eager to see this work 
pushed to success. I will be present at the permanent organization 
December 15, 1 886, and you can count on me in every movement look- 
ing to the elevation of the profession of Alabama. 

Wishing your journal every success, and thanking you for your hon- 
orable efforts to do something for the medical profession of Alabama, I 
subscribe myself, A Friend to The Alabama Surgical and Gyneco- 
logical Association." 

Below is a list of the members of the profession in the county, with 
their colleges, dates of graduation, offices filled by each, and post-office 
addresses, who are members of the Jefferson County Medical Society: 

Dr. Tillman Purifoy Burgamy, Jefferson Medical College, 1845, Bir- 
mingham. 

Dr. William Dudley Cooper, Jefferson Medical College, 1869, Bir- 
mingham. 

Dr. Hardin Perkins Cochrane, University of New York, 1874, Bir- 
mingham. President Jefferson County Medical Society in 1884. 

Dr. Benjamin Grigsby Copeland, Jefferson Medical College, 1883, Bir- 
mingham. Secretary Jefferson County Medical Society in 1884 and 1885. 
Dr. John Daniel Sinkler Davis, Georgia Medical College, 1879, Bir- 
mingham. Member of the American Medical Association ; Censor in 
St. Clair County in 1879 and 1880; one of the founders of the Alabama 
Surgical and Gynecological Association ; one of the founders of The Ala- 
bama Medical and Surgical Journal ; member of the Council of the Ala- 
bama Surgical and Gynecological Association for 1887 to 1892 ; President 
of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1887. 
7 



114 Jefferson County. 

Dr. William Elias Brownlee Davis, Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- 
lege, 1883, Birmingham. Member of the American Medical Associa- 
tion ; one of the founders of the Alabama Surgical and Gynecological 
Association ; one of the founders of the Alabama Medical and Surgical 
Journal ; Secretary of the Alabama Surgical and Gynecological Asso- 
ciation, and Chairman of its Publishing Committee for five years, 
from 1887 to 1892 ; Treasurer of Jefferson County Medical Society 
in 1886. 

Dr. John Calhoun Dozier, University of Nashville, 1858, Birming- 
ham. President of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1885 ; Health 
Officer of Jefferson County in 1887. 

Dr. Charles Drennen, Alabama Medical College, 1880, Birmingham. 

Dr. Edward Pickens Earle, Medical College of South Carolina, 1880, 
Birmingham. Secretary of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1886, 
and Censor for 1887 and 1888. 

Dr. Robert Smith Edwards, Georgia Medical College, 1871, Truss- 
ville. 

Dr. John Moore Hayes, Nashville Medical College, 1857, Pratt 
Mines. State Physician. 

Dr. Albert Thomas Henley, University of New York, 1869, Bir- 
mingham. State Physician. 

Dr. Brice Martin Hughes, University of Louisiana, 1S82, Birming- 
ham. Censor from 1S82 to 1886. 

Dr. Mortimer Harry Jordan, Miami Medical College, 1868, Birming- 
ham. Secretary Jefferson County Medical Society in 1873 and 1874, and 
President in 1882 and 1883 ; Censor in 1885 and 1886; Senior Counselor 
in Alabama Medical Association ; member State Board of Censors in 
1881 and 1882; President Alabama Medical Association in 1883. 

Dr. Edward P. Lacy, Vanderbilt University, 1883, Wheeling. 

Dr. Samuel Leonidas Ledbetter, University of Louisville, 1869, Bir- 
mingham. Secretary of Jefferson County Medical Society for 1881, 1882, 
and 1883. 

Dr. James Buckner Luckie, University of Pennsylvania, 1853, Bir- 
mingham. Health Officer for Jefferson County from 1881 to 18S4; Cen- 
sor for 1885 and 1886. 

Dr. Percy Bradford Lusk, University of Louisiana, 1883, Birming- 
ham. 

Dr. James Henry McCarty, Atlanta Medical College, 1880, Birming- 
ham. Professor of Anatomy in the Atlanta Medical College in 1881 and 
1882; Member of the Judicial Council of the Alabama Surgical and 



The Medical Professio7i. 1 1 5 

Gynecological Association ; Vice-President of Jefferson County Medical 
Society in 1886. 

Dr. John Mortimer Naff, Vanderbilt University, 1885, Pratt Mines. 

Dr. Francis Marion Prince, Jefferson Medical College, 1849, Jones- 
boro. President of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1869, and Vice- 
President of the Alabama Medical Association in 1877 and 1878. 

Dr. Thomas F. Robinson, Vanderbilt University, 1881, Jonesboro. 

Dr. Henry N. Rosser, Atlanta Medical College, 1869, Birmingham. 
President of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1883 ; one of the found- 
ers of the Alabama Surgical and Gynecological Association, and made 
its first President in 1887 ; Censor of Jefferson County Medical Society 
from 1887 to 1890. 

Dr. John William Sears, University of Pennsylvania, 1850, Birming- 
ham. President of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1S79; Censor of 
Jefferson County Medical Society for ten years, and Counselor of Ala- 
bama Medical Association. 

Dr. Wooster Ney Shoemaker, Columbus Medical College, 1878, Bir- 
mingham. Treasurer of Jefferson County Medical Society for 1883, 1884, 
and 1885. 

Dr. Edward Henry Sholl, Pennsylvania Medical College, 1856, Bir- 
mingham. -Orator for Alabama Medical Association for 1883 ; Counselor 
in Alabama Medical Association, and Censor in Jefferson County Medical 
Society from 1884 to 1887. 

Dr. Henderson Stallwart Duncan, Vanderbilt University, 1880, Bir- 
mingham. 

Dr. Charles VVhelan, University of Louisiana, 1866, Birmingham. 
President of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1886; Censor of the 
Society of Jefferson for five years, and Counselor of the Alabama Medi- 
cal Association. 

Dr. Cunningham Wilson, University of Pennsylvania, 1884, Bir- 
mingham. 

Dr. B. L. Wyman, College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. , 18 — , 
Birmingham. Secretary of Jefferson County Medical Society in 1887. 

Dr. Henry Jasper Winn, University of Louisiana, 1858, Birming- 
ham. Health Officer of Jefferson County in 1884 and 1885 ; now Post- 
master of Birmingham. 

Dr. Samuel Harvey Wooleston, University of Pennsylvania, 1880, 
Birmingham. 

Dr. Joseph B. Robinson, Vanderbilt University, 1882, Woodlawn. 



1 1 6 Jefferson County. 



REGULAR PHYSICIANS NOT MEMBERS OF JEFFERSON 
COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 

Dr. John Pattisoii Abercrombie, Alabama Medical College, 1880, 
Cedar Grove. 

Dr. Barwell Gideon Abernathy, College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Baltimore, 1879, Birmingham. Recently removed to Florida. 

Dr. Jones Cadwallader Abernathy. University of Louisiana, 1859, 
Birmingham. Surgeon in the Confederate Army. 

Dr. Samuel W. Acton, Alabama Medical College, i860, Trussville. 

Dr. James Madison Bevans, certificate of the Madison County 
Board, 1871, Warrior. 

Dr. Andrew Jackson Brewster, Alabama Medical College, 1880, Bir- 
mingham. 

Dr. George Washington Brown, Atlanta Medical College, 1877, 
Pratt Mines. 

Dr. Thomas Jefferson Brown, Vanderbilt University, 1885, Pratt 
Mines. 

Dr. Samuel Mardis Cross, Georgia Medical College, i860. Wood- 
lawn. 

Dr. Andrew Jackson Crow, Atlanta Medical College, 1868, Warrior. 

Dr. Russell McWhorter Cunningham, Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College, 1879, Pratt Mines. 

Dr. Gideon Wesley Ellis, certificate Elyton Botanical Association, 
1872, Morris. 

Dr. Albert Gallatin Douglass, Vanderbilt University, 1881, Birming- 
ham. 

Dr. A. C. Pidwards, , Birmingham. 

Dr. Ezeva Foster, certificate County Board, 1880, Toadvine. 

Dr. Robert Smith Green, Alabama Medical College, i860. New 
Castle. 

Dr. F. P. Lewis, , Coalburg. 

Dr. John P. Gillespie, Miami Medical College, 1883, Birmingham. 

Dr. Robert Julius Mathews, Georgia Medical College, 18 — , Warrior. 

Dr. J. W. McClendon, , Irondale. 

Dr. D. D. Oates, University of Pennsylvania, i860, Leeds. 

Dr. William Felix Posey, Alabama Medical College, 185 1, Mt. 
Pinson. 

Dr. Milton Rag.sdale, Medical College of Atlanta, 18—, McCalla. 



The Medical Profession. 1 1 7 

Dr. Martin Roberts, certificate County Board, 1878, Hagood's Cross- 
roads. 

Dr. J. J. Duncan, Kentucky School of Medicine, 1886, Birmingham. 

IRREGULAR PRACTITIONERS IN THE COUNTY. 

Dr. Albert E. Meadows (homeopathist), Hahnemann Medical College, 
1883, Warrior. 

Dr. Julius J. Faber (homeopathist), Homeopathic Hospital Medical 
College, 1884, Birmingham. 

Dr. A. L. Monroe (homeopathist), now in Louisville, Ky. Practiced 
in the county during the years 1883 and 1884. 

PHYSICIANS WHO HAVE RETIRED FROM PRACTICE. 

W. A. Cook, University of Louisiana. Removed to Atlanta, Ga. 

T. D. Nabors. Now in the drug business in Birmingham. 

George W. Morrow, Miami Medical College, Ohio, 1868. Now in 
the drug business in Birmingham. 

J. W. Maddox. 

M. S. Sykes, University of Louisiana, 18 — . Removed from the 
State. 

T. W. Garner, Vanderbilt Medical College, 1880. Removed to St. 
Clair County. 

James Bird Vann, University of Louisiana, i860. Now in the real 
estate business. 

DECEASED PHYSICIANS. 

Arthur R. Jones, Miami Medical College, Jonesboro. Dr. Jones 
died in the year 1883 while on his knees reading a mock prayer. He was 
■a man of culture, and had every advantage to train his mind in several 
of the sciences. During his college course his mind took a strange line 
of skepticism, which resulted in making him an infidel. He did much to 
influence his friends and associates to follow in his footprints and accept 
his theories, but with little success. His name has been flashed to every 
civilized land on account of the memorable circumstances surrounding 
his last moments. I can but paint his life as one of night, his death of 
night, his future of night. What a solemn thing is night in the wilder- 
ness of skepticism ! Night among the mountains of temptation ! Night 



I I S Jefferson Cotinty. 

on the sea of learning ! Frightful night among tropical groves ! Flash- 
ing, fearful night amid Arctic severities ! No calm night on Roman Cam- 
pagna! No glorious night 'mid sea after a tempest! Oh, thou blind 
mariner, with so many beaming, burning, flaming, glorious truths to 
guide you, you failed, I fear, to find your way into the harbor. 

Dr. Joseph M. Burton, Nashville Medical College, 1877. Died near 
Birmingham in the year 1S84. He had done a successful practice in the 
county for several years. 

Dr. H. P. Heard, graduate of the Georgia Medical College at Augusta, 
1857. Practiced one year in Birmingham, and died of angina pectoris. 

THE ALABAMA MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 

The profession of Jefferson County has ever shown a spirit of progress, 
and it has given to Alabama the first and only medical and surgical jour- 
nal. Its editors are Drs. J. D. S. Davis and W. E. B. Davis. We mod- 
estly refer to the following extracts on the journal : 

The Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal. — This is just such 
a journal as we should expect from a land hallowed by the footsteps of J. 
Marion Sims. It is essentially different from any other journal on our table. 
There are forty-six pages of original communications, embracing such 
articles as "Pelvic Inflammations," "A Case of Meniere's Disease," 
"The Immediate Restoration of Parts to their Normal Position after 
Tenotomy," "Boric Acid," "Spontaneous Rupture of a Large Multiloc- 
ular Ovarian Cyst," "A Case of Opium Poisoning," "Simultaneous 
Double Primary Amputation Complicated with other Injuries, " " Destruc- 
tion of an Eye by Calomel." Each of these articles is ably presented, 
and there is a tendency throughout to simplicity in style. The good old 
Anglo-Saxon words are used far more plentifully than we find them used 
in any of the Northern journals. Of course, this is an element of vigor. 
It is a comfort to read articles in which the writer is telling facts with as 
little fuss as possible. 

We find a page and a half devoted to original translations, and eight 
pages to society proceedings. 

In the salutatory a fine tribute is paid to literature, and afterward the 
importance of medical literature is pointed out. 

The editorial department has the following under " Criminal Abor- 
tion:" "The low muttering thunders of destruction and roaming blizzard 
of the birth-strangled babe have just swept over our sister city, Atlanta, 
and now begin to disturb the gentle zephyrs of the Magic City. It is 



The Medical Profession. 119 

rumored that a lady (?) of Birmingham, who contemplates marriage at an 
early date, had an abortion committed on her about the 20th of May. 
The infamous scoundrel and she devil who are guilty of this heinous crime 
will be remembered and watched. They have been cunning and sly, but 
our promise for it, if they are not careful, law and public sentiment 
enough will yet be stirred up to get a verdict of guilty. May something 
be done to eradicate this wholesale slaughter of the helpless!" Amen 
and Amen. 

Here is the very place where the chivalry of the South and North 
can unite and work for a grand good. This journal is good in its youth ; 
it will be grand in its old age. — Denver Medical Journal, 

The Alabam.\ Medical and Surgical Journal. — Filled with pro- 
fessional patriotism and State pride, Messrs. Davis undertook to supply 
the State of Alabama with a first- class periodical, devoted to the interests 
of the medical profession of that State. The effort has been successful 
beyond the average ; it has the real stamp of enterprise and editorial 
ability. 

One of the leading features of interest may be found in the depart- 
ment of diseases of the eye, conducted by Ben. J. Baldwin, M. D., of 
Montgomery. Dr. Baldwin is an accomplished physician and a graceful 
writer. 

The Alabama Journal came into existence at the same time Progress 
made its first appearance. We submit it to the profession that Progress and 
the Alabama Journal have already attained a growth and development 
amply sufficient to establish their claims to a perpetual existence. — 
Progress, of Louisville, Ky. 





1 1 III 


1 


1 
















1 
















1 1 1 


1 















BIRMINGHAM. 



Q^aVly Ra(lyo^A Bo<l^<n|- 



PROSPERITY IN THE OLD ERl-THE FIRST RSILROSD-THE 
RftILRO]\D as M EMfiNCIPfiTOR-EXPLORING 
FOR MINERALS, 



CHAPTER VI. 

Universal prosperity and content prevailed in Alabama in the decade 
of 1850-60, No recognized premonition of the great revolution disturbed 
the supreme confidence of the whole people in the virtue and stability of 
their industrial and social organization. In this decade the value of real 
and personal property in the State increased 1 17.01 per centum. Bank 
deposits were fourfold at the end as compared with the beginning of the 
period : one hundred and thirty-seven miles of railroad, at the beginning, 
had increased to nearly eight hundred ; the river traffic had increased 
greatly ; agriculture had increased its products near threefold ; there had 
been an addition of 24.96 per centum of population. 

David Hubbard, a cotton planter of the Valley of the Tennessee, had 
read of the new method of transportation, a short line of railroad, just 
built in the interior of Pennsylvania as an experiment. He went expressly 
to see it, with the purpose of determining its availability to overcome the 



Early Railroad Building. 

obstruction to freight traffic on the Tennessee River, caused by the Mussel 
Shoals. As a result of his investigation the legislature of Alabama was 
applied to, in 1830, to grant a charter to a line of railroad running from a 
point opposite the town of Florence, where the new iron manufacturing 
town of Sheffield now is, to Tuscumbia, two miles southwardly from the 
river. This point is the lower terminus of the Mussel Shoals. Cars were 
placed upon the road drawn by mules. Two years later, in 1832, the 
Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad was chartered to make a line 
forty-six miles, running along the west side of the river and terminating 
at Decatur, the upper terminus of the Shoals. Benjamin Sherrod, a cot- 
ton planter of great wealth, was made president of a company of cotton 
planters who undertook to build one of the principal railroads of the Union 
at that day. The grades were light, and the roadbed was completed inside 
of the estimated cost of $5,000 per mile. But the cost of equipment, even 
with bar iron placed on parallel wooden stringers, proved very burdensome 
to an agricultural population. The president found it necessary to support 
the fortunes of the road by his individual endorsement of its obligations. 
He lost a large part of his fortune as the penalty exacted of his generosity. 
The cars along the whole line were for many months propelled by mules. 
This, the earliest of the railroads of Alabama, is now a part of the line 
of the Memphis & Charleston. 

The Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad was built in the 
interest of the cotton-planting industry of that magnificent part of the 
Valley of the Tennessee traversed by it. Now there is a railroad just 
completed running southward from Sheffield, the spot where the original 
short line initiated, into the iron-ore beds and coal seams, some forty miles 
distant. Had these mineral resources been reached in 1832 by railroad, 
their unparalleled richness and the ease of their development, taken in 
connection with the wealth of the Southern Valley of the Mississippi at 
that period, would have created conditions which, apparently, must have 
located on the Tennessee, rather than later at Pittsburg, the iron manu- 
facturing center of the United States. The Valley of the Tennessee 
would, in that event, have now been to the iron manufactories of Alabama 
as the agricultural counties of York and Lancaster are to those of 
Pennsylvania. Had this other direction been given to the railroad of 
the Sherrods, Hubbards, Deshlers, and the cotton planters of the Valley, 
into what other channel must that determining force have carried the 
industrial and political history of Alabama! At the period of the 
initiating of this first railroad in the Valley of the Tennessee, the indus- 
trial revolution originated by the cotton gin had begun to overturn the 



Jefferson Cozmty. 

emancipation sympathies fixed in the South, by the well-known views on 
slavery held by Jefferson and practiced by John Randolph, of Roanoke. 
Had iron manufacture by free labor been safely established in 1832 in the 
center of the South- Western Cotton States upon the bank of the Tennessee 
in Alabama, to be supported by the unparalleled resources of the Alabama 
mineral region, it would have been wholly within the probabilities of 
cause and effect that the " irrepressible conflict between free labor and 
slave" of i860 must have been anticipated by thirty years. Instead of 
developing itself as a sectional issue, as in i860, it must have matured as 
a local issue. The mutually supporting industries of the mines and of the 
cotton fields of the same State and the same section must have been 
reconciled by the influence of the railroad. 

The presence of iron ores in Jefferson County had been known to 
capitalists in Alabama for many years prior to i860, but it was only in 
the decade from 1850 to i860 that organized effort was made looking 
toward railway connection with them. The six-horse stage line, carrying 
the mail and travel from Montgomery via Elyton, the county seat of 
Jefferson, to Huntsville, passed over Red Mountain, and the iron ties of 
the wheels and the iron shoes of the coach horses had aided the farm 
wagons and cattle's feet to crush the surface ore of the roadbed for miles, 
exposing its dazzling red dust to view, but seldom exciting a serious 
inquiry respecting the import of a long neglect. 

It is strange nobody thought of running a railway out from the 
Tennessee, opposite the old town, Florence, where Sheffield now is, 
toward Russellville, to get coal, at least known to be there, which railway 
need not have been over thirty-five or forty miles long. 



Early Railroad Building. 



5f?e )N(ortt7-Ea5t9SoiJtl7-U/e5t l^ailroad. 

V 

Michael Tuomey — The Revelations of Geology- 
Two Great Railroads — The Elyton Convention — 
Dr. Garland First President — Robert Emmet Rodes — 

Land Grants — A Beautiful Country — Commissioner Anderson. 



Two lines of railroad — first the North-East & South-West (now the 
Alabama Great Southern) and the Alabama Central (now the South & 
North) — had been projected to penetrate the mineral region in 1850-60. 
A general interest throughout the State had now manifested itself in 
railroad building, and especially in those lines which promised to open to 
enterprise the mineral wealth believed to exist in this section of the State. 
It is true very vague and indefinite ideas prevailed everywhere respecting 
the proportion, or the commercial value, of the Coal Measures or iron- 
ore deposits. Professor Michael Tuomey was one of the early disciples of 
Lyell, and one of the most enthusiastic devotees of the science of 
geology, at the early period of its history when Southern universities 
made small provision for the study of its peculiar attractions and singular 
practical importance in Southern fields and forests, prairies and mount- 
ains. Mr. Tuomey held a professorship in the University of the State at 
Tuscaloosa. He had succeeded in impressing the legislature with his own 
belief that the mountain counties abounded in mineral wealth. As early 
as 1834 coal had been mined near Tuscaloosa. From 1850 to i860 a 
considerable trade in coal had been established at points along the 
upper Warrior River above Tuscaloosa, and Demopolis, a town at the 
junction of the Bigbee and Warrior Rivers, and Mobile. The bed of 
the river in certain localities above the falls runs through a seam of 
coal, and the mineral may be dumped from the excavations on the 
banks into barges on the water below. It was perilous navigation to 



\ 



124 Jefferson Comity. 

carry barges laden with coal through the rugged, tortuous, and rapid 
channel over the falls of the Warrior. It could only be attempted in 
seasons of high water. The boats must be steered by poles, and none 
other but a steady hand, brave heart, and thoroughly familiar knowledge 
of the course could hope to carry them over in safety. The barges were 
always sold along with their cargoes. 

Professor Tuomey was encouraged by a small appropriation by the 
legislature, a few hundred dollars only, to spend the months of his 
summer vacation in verifying his faith in the mineral wealth of the 
Alabama mountains. The high price of slaves was then operating to 
concentrate the limited supply of this kind of labor in the hands of the 
already richly-provided planters. As plantations grew larger in the hands 
of a gradually-reduced number of planters, the profits of merchants, 
lawyers, and doctors sought the banks. The presence of this cash capital, 
which could not find investment in negro labor, already too high as com- 
pared with the price of cotton, suggested the further investigation into 
the mineral wealth of the mountains. 

Toward the middle of the decade 1850-60 the Alabama & Tennessee 
Rivers Railroad was chartered and the construction begun. The southern 
terminus was Selma, and the northern some point on the Tennessee River, 
north-east of Selma, the road to pass through the coal seams near Monte- 
vallo. The road had been built beyond these mines as far as Oxford, 
Calhoun County, in i860, and the product of the mines had then entered 
the Mobile market to so great an extent as to materially interfere with 
Pennsylvania and English coals hitherto relied upon. This road remained 
incomplete until some years after the war, when it was carried forward 
into Georgia, and now forms an important line of the Virginia, East 
Tennessee & Georgia system. 

In the summer of 1854 there assembled at Elyton, the county-seat 
of Jefferson, a mass-meeting to consider the building of the North-East 
and South-West Railroad to connect Chattanooga with the Mobile & Ohio 
Railroad at a point near Meridian. Colonel William S. Ernest, a citizen of 
Jefferson County, was very active in the initial steps to call this conven- 
tion. When the day of assemblage arrived he had succeeded in preparing 
a grand subscription barbecue, under the noble old oaks of the village, for 
the feasting of the visitors and the multitude. A barbecue is a form of 
feast peculiar to the South-West. The meats — fresh beef, veal, pork, 
mutton, and poultry, are baked by being laid on poles stretched across 
shallow pits, under the shade of the trees, in which very hot coals are 
kept. Constant turning and seasoning with vinegar and condiments 



Early Railroad Ihiilding. 125 

during the process of baking result in giving to them a delicious fia\or in 
no other manner attainable. 

The meeting at Elyton was attended by capitalists from different 
parts of the State. It was a success. The scheme to introduce the 
project to the public was well laid. Canvassers were sent out to obtain 
subscriptions, and in a short time the grading of the track had begun. 

Dr. Garland, occupying a chair in the University faculty, was made 
President of the railroad company. Labor, available for the grading of 
the road, was almost exclusively negro slave. There was an abundance 
of labor settled among the mountains, but it was of the white proprietary 
class of small farmers who tilled their own fields. This was a most 
peculiar class of people. With no definition of their status could their 
native pride be more rudely assailed than in an insinuation that they were 
laborers. They were ivliite men, and negro slaves were " laborers." They 
owned their land, owned the " critter" which drew the plow in the week 
and carried the "old lady" and a couple of the younger scions of the 
race, astride withers and croup, to "meeting" on Sunday. The fact that 
the males of the family held the plow handles, split the rails, and kept 
up the farm, while the females cooked, took out the weekly wash to their 
own tubs at the spring at the foot of the hill, and indulged in like domestic 
habits, was merely a personal arrangement which any white family, the 
"equal" of all other white families, might enter upon at will, or abstain 
from, as circumstances favored one or another family custom. These 
white men had been held at arm's length from the blessings of wage-paid 
labor by the institution of slavery. There was no place for them in the 
economy of the cotton plantation. The negro was not only physically 
the more robust man and more capable plowman, ditcher, rail-splitter, 
and the like, but he was a machine in effect, and his prolific race qualities 
were features of value in commerce. There was no labor on the face of 
the earth to surpass or even, we venture to believe, to equal the slaves of 
the old plantation. They were bred to labor, fed to labor, trained to 
labor in that degree which reduced every individual to his place in the 
farm methods and economy, and whoever, not familiar with the practical 
operations of the old plantation, might, in this later time of emancipation 
and reform, imagine that the negro slave was a degraded man, without 
ambition, without energy, without zeal, born of a soul-kindling manhood, 
stands with conceptions apart from facts. The negro became, under the 
tutelage of the plantation, a plowman without a rival. As valet, cook, 
barber, as the divinity of the family nursery, as fast friend to his owner, 
or his owner's friend, in sickness and in health, in peace or in war, there 



1 26 Jefferson Comity. 

was never'safer, truer, or better friend than this black man. We wait 
upon the vicissitudes of fortune through many generations, we of the free 
white race, for that disciph'ne in labor, and fidelity to our parts in our life 
work, which the methods of the plantation gave to the negro sla\e, and 
speedily brought forth from his crude nature a well-perfected man to fill 
not a low place only, but a high place as well. 

We say the negro of the lowland plantations along the line of the 
projected North-East & South-West Railroad had kept the white labor of 
the mountain country away from the patronage, the training, and the 
blessings of wages. Thus when the time came that capital had been 
augmented by the profits of the plantations, and had begun to overflow 
the plantation borders and methods, it could not find the surplus negro 
labor it needed for its own employment. 

When the planters along the line of the projected railroad were 
appealed to in their homes by the canvassers sent out from the Elyton 
meeting to subscribe to its stock, they oftentimes subscribed the ascer- 
tained value of a fixed amount of grading to be done by their own 
plantation slaves and took stock to cover it. The work was contracted 
for in such proportions as the subscriber-planter might consider con\ enient 
to be executed by his able-bodied men in spare time, now and then, from 
the crops at any period of the year. While some planters may have 
given more regular labor than this to their contracts, the general habit 
was as is here indicated, and slave labor alone was used. 

The outbreak of the war of 1S61-65 resolved all other enterprises 
in Alabama into war measures. The railroad could not be completed 
then. The slaves were called home to make corn and pork for the army. 
The railroad abided the coming of peace; and when the season again 
returned for the restoration of the work of construction, the slave had 
become free, and the tide of prosperity, destined to feed the railroad, 
had been turned from the plantation of the valle)' to the region of the 
mountains. 

Robert Emmet Rodes 

Was a native of Lynchburg, Va., and a graduate of the \'irginia Military 
Institute, with high standing in his class. He chose the profession of 
civil engineering, and after several years of experience gained in other 
States, came to Alabama to be made Chief Engineer of the North East 
and South- West. Making his headquarters in Tuscaloosa he married 
the acknowledged belle of the aristocratic societ}- of that University 
town. Miss Virginia Woodruff. 



Early Railroad Building. 127 

The war opened and quickly absorbed the young engineer. The 
man and the occasion had met. The mihtary record of Major-General 
Rodes is one of the brightest pages of the history of the grandest and 
most awe-inspiring of modern wars. He loved his country, and war was 
his element of delight and glory. He neglected nothing, not even the 
smallest details which go to create, in the aggregate, the perfect soldier. 
Routine duty as a task to be half done, or done only as far as necessary, 
was not in Rodes' ideal. His chin was as close shaven in camp as in the 
parlor ; his moustache and hair as well dressed ; his spurs and their 
"bells" were always burnished bright; his horse perfectly groomed. 
Was this the holiday soldier ? Was this a martinet? Ah! When in 
the thickest of the last of his many great battles he fell dead in front of 
his advancing lines, those near by concealed from his followers knowledge 
of the fate of their young leader until the charge should be ended. That 
night many of the wounded of his command had been gathered into a large 
warehouse in Winchester, Va., near the battlefield. None had suspected 
the fate of their great leader. Darkness impenetrable and the groans 
of the dying prevailed. Presently another ambulance train sent in to 
the improvised hospital its fresh consignment. These brought the news 
that "General Rodes had been shot through the head, dead, on the 
battlefield." In an instant every voice was silent; in an instant hundreds 
of voices cried out in sobs of mourning that General Rodes was dead ! 
and long into the night, amid such a scene of unutterable physical suffer- 
ing as beggars description, the cries of strong men, helpless, resounded 
in this old warehouse bewailing in anguish the light of many battlefields 
which had gone out forever. 

General Rodes was born a soldier. His attitude, his voice, the 
significance of his yea or nay, were the impersonation of authority, zeal, 
and courage. Purpose was eloquently expressed in his bearing, and no 
troops could resist his persuasions. 

Land Grants. 

The North-East & South-West and Wills Valley system of railroads 
existed on paper when the war ended. J. C. Stanton, a bold and 
energetic man from Boston, came to its relief at this juncture. He was 
quick to see the ultimate advantages of a line running for many miles 
parallel with Red Mountain and coal fields which must be considered a 
connecting link, on almost an air line, between the mountain of ores with 
Cincinnati on one side and New Orleans on the other. The Western 



128 Jefferson County. 

markets for Alabama iron and inevitably the South American coal and 
iron trade would sooner or later be supplied from Alabama through the 
ports of New Orleans and Mobile. This road runs upon the dividing line 
between the Warrior and Cahaba Coal Fields. It bisects an agricultural 
country of unsurpassed advantages. These lands are very valuable. It 
is easier to make a substantial and pleasant home on them than, 
perhaps, on any of the average lands of the United States. The first 
consideration to a farmer in selecting a home is healthfulness of location. 
After this, productiveness of soil, availability of labor, and accessibilit}' of 
produce to market. Here the altitude is sufficient to secure equability of 
temperature in the summer season, and not sufficient to allow severe cold 
in winter. The nights are refreshing after the longest summer days ; the 
heat is never overpowering, and sunstroke is unknown. Years come 
and go without any snow, and occasional snow-storms never cover the 
ground longer than two or three days, nor at greater depth than two or 
three inches. The soil is a sandy loam, naturally drained by ceaseless, 
gentle undulation. There are ever-recurring springs of the clearest and 
purest water, cool in the heat of summer, light on the lips, and delightful 
to drink. The springs form branches which afford live stock an abund- 
ance of water. The boundless forest commons make excellent ranges 
for cattle, sheep, and hogs from April to December. Beech, hickory, 
white oak, post oak, and red oak mass keep hogs fat in midst of winter. 
Deer, foxes, squirrels, and opossums are plentiful to hunt. The fertility 
of the soil and the equability of the climate conspire to promote a 
magnificent agriculture, rich in almost limitless variety. 

The wild clover and grasses grow in the forest a foot high, and the 
forest trees are numerous in kind and stately in size. These are indica- 
tions of what we may expect from the cultivated crops and prove what 
will be their response to the skill of the farmer. Red clover in summer 
grows two to three feet high ; vetch, three feet high in winter ; yellow and 
white clover cover the ground in mid-winter ; turnips and onions with 
green tops all winter in the fields ; wheat is seeded as late as December ; 
January is the favorite season for seeding spring oats ; green (English) peas 
are sowed in January and February ; there are hardly two consecutive 
days in winter when storms would interfere with the grazing of live stock 
upon rye, barley, or clover pastures ; the climate has been tested for ensi- 
lage and proved itself favorable ; strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 
many varieties of early and late peaches, pears, nectarines, quinces, and 
pomegranates grow to perfection ; the apple can nowhere in the United 
States be surpassed, if equaled, as we find it on these lands. All kinds of 



Early Railroad B7nlding. 1 29 

garden vegetables grow to the highest known perfection. We can safely 
estimate the practical farmer's returns in staple crops as follows : Wheat, 
fifteen to twenty bushels, with soil capacity for forty bushels ; corn, 
twenty to thirty bushels, with soil capacity for sixty to seventy-five 
bushels ; potatoes, three hundred and turnips three hundred bushels per 
acre; oats, beets, carrots, millet, clover, and various other grasses maybe 
estimated from the figures we cite, and which we pronounce wholly 
within the realization possible. 

A beautiful, picturesque landscape ; a full twelve months of crop 
growing and crop harvesting (for there is practically no cessation of either 
should the farmer's enterprise cover the variety permitted by soil and 
climate for his crops) ; a surface highly favorable to good wagon roads ; 
Chattanooga, Birmingham, Meridian, Vicksburg, all growing markets, and 
the entire world around in reach ; labor attainable without extraordinary 
difificulties ; an economical State government in Alabama, enlightened, 
and founded on universal suffrage, with constant tendency toward reduc- 
tion of taxation, constant progress in the scope and significance of free 
public education — these are prominent among the recommendations to 
settlement and the establishment of domiciliary interests offered by the 
territory along the line of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. 

Mr. Stanton changed the original name of his road to the "Alabama 
& Chattanooga." Under this nam^ it was completed from Chattanooga 
to a point on the Mobile & Ohi>y Road, near Meridian, Mississippi, a 
distance of two hundred and ninety-five miles, about the year 1870. 
There are forty-eight stations, including the termini. 

The lands in Alabama, of which we particularly speak now as the 
property of the Alabama Great Southern, were granted by the United 
States to the road. They comprise about 600,000 acres and lie in the 
counties of DeKalb, Jackson, Marshall, Etowah, Blount, St. Clair, Jeffer- 
son, Shelby, Tuscaloosa, Bibb, Greene, Hale, Sumter, and Choctaw. 
Some of these are mineral lands, but have not been geologically surveyed 
to fix the value or extent of their mineral deposits. Timber abounds on 
all, and much of it is merchantable. 

Passing beyond Alabama we find the Queen and Crescent s}'stem of 
railroads, of which the Alabama Great Southern is a part, extends from 
Cincinnati, southward, to include the Vicksburg & Meridian, and the 
Vicksburg & Shreveport. This system controls upward of 3,000,000 
acres of land, the great bulk being agricultural. They lie in alter- 
nate sections of one mile square (640 acres) fifteen miles on each 
side of the line. This princely domain commences at the dividing line 



Jefferson Coimty. 

between the States of Georgia and Alabama, and terminates with the 
dividing line between Louisiana and Texas. The great variety of soils 
contained by it and the situation it maintains, in the heart of the civiliza- 
tion of the country, give it rare value. 

Frank Y. Anderson, who is Land Commissioner of this great land 
system, resides in Birmingham, where the headquarters of the Land 
Department are located. Mr. Anderson is a Marylander by birth, his 
ancestors being of English extraction. He was born in 1847, and reared 
and educated in Washington, District of Columbia. At the age of twenty- 
three he graduated from the law department of Columbia College, and at 
once entered upon the practice of his profession in Washington. Two 
years later he removed to Mobile, and gave his attention to the division of 
the practice respecting lands. After eight years in Mobile he came to 
Birmingham. As an efficient agent and manager of great corporate 
interests, Mr. Anderson ranks high. The land he controls is wholly 
owned by English capitalists, who can know their agent only by the worthy 
manner in which he discharges his trust. 

Mr. Anderson is happily established in the societj* of Birmingham, 
not alone by virtue of his own intelligence and public spirit, but by the 
long-fixed influence of his wife's family in Alabama. Mrs. Anderson is a 
daughter of B. F. Paine, of DeKalb County, and descended from the 
Winston family, so distinguished in wealth and political honors in the 
State. 



'6\)^ /Alabama Qeptral. 

Governor Moore and State Aid — John T. Milner — A Great Work 

of Engineering — The Gulf Commerce — 

Cullman Colony. 

The line of railroad now known as the North and South Division of 
the Louisville & Nashville system was originally projected as the Ala- 
bama Central. The legislature appropriated, at its session in the winter 
of 1858, ^10,000 for making a reconnoissance for a route for a railroad 
from the Tennessee River to some point on the Alabama & Tennessee 



Early Railroad Building. 131 

Rivers Railroad, and to make a thorough survey of the most practicable 
route to connect the Tennessee River with the navigable waters of the 
Mobile Bay with reference to the development of the mineral regions of 
the State. The original conception, it will be seen, did not make Mont- 
gomery, but "some point on the Alabama & Tennessee Rivers Rail- 
road," now the Selma, Rome & Dalton, the southern terminus. The 
original plan was to connect the Tennessee River in Alabama with the 
Alabama River by the shortest and most available route consistent with 
the proper development of the mineral resources of the State. 

The Governor wisely appointed John T. Milner, Chief Engineer, to 
make a survey and to report to him respecting the cost of the projected 
■road, the character of the country to be traversed, the value of the min- 
erals to be reached by the road, and the general recommendations of the 
public policy of the enterprise. 

John T. Milner became, from that time until now, a conspicuous 
character in the industrial revolution in Alabama. He has been emphat- 
ically a leader in the new path which leads to that greatness of develop- 
ment so plainly now in view. Mr. Milner studied nearly four years at the 
University of Georgia, and is a native of that State. He had pursued the 
profession of civil engineering in various parts of the Union, even as far 
as Oregon. His judgment had been ripened, and his faculty of observa- 
lion quickened by long and wide acquaintance with countries and with 
men. So varied had been his experiences he had even rolled a wheel- 
barrow and worked for years with a pick and shovel in a California gold 
mine. 

When Governor Moore selected him to locate a line for the new 
railroad, there was a condition annexed, as we have said, that the engineer 
should report to the Governor his impressions, received from observation 
of the country he was to explore, respecting its capacity to support a 
railroad, when built. 

Mr. Milner wrote to the Governor, on sending in his report, Novem- 
ber 1st, 1858, " It was my first duty to ascertain where the mineral region 
of the State lay. In this I was guided mainly by the valuable and 
reliable report of the late Professor Tuomey, State Geologist." 

The engineer recommended that Decatur, on the Tennessee, be 
•selected for the northern terminus, and that some point near Montevallo 
be made the southern terminus of the line of the Central Railroad. 

Finally the intersection with the Alabama & Tennessee Rivers Road 
was made at a point in the woods seven miles east of Montevallo, as a 
legislative compromise between Selma and Montgomery, it being precisely 



132 Jefferson County. 

the same distance to either city from Calera. At the crossing a village 
sprung up, called Calera. Calera now justly entertains aspirations toward 
the mission of a city. Streets have been laid off by a land company ; a 
good hotel has been built ; the most extensive manufactory of lime in the 
State is there, and a company has been organized to build a blast furnace. 

But the engineer explained that his selection of "some point near 
Montevallo" for the southern terminus of the survey ordered by the 
Governor had an ulterior as well as a present motive. He thought the 
point thus selected would be " easily accessible by railroad from Mont- 
gomery, and from South-East Alabama, and also from Mobile, via Jackson, 
Uniontown, Marion, and Centreville." 

The line has been extended, as we have seen, in a straight line from 
Calera, "near Montevallo," to Montgomery. The line "from Mobile, 
via Jackson, Uniontown," etc., is now being built, and the line from East 
Alabama will soon be under contract. " Examine the map of Alabama 
herewith submitted, and the projects thereon indicated, and these facts will 
become evident," wrote the engineer. Birmingham then had no place on 
this map. The general views of the engineer were accepted by the 
Governor. Now, all roads in Alabama lead to Birmingham, and roads of 
other States seek connection at the " Magic City" with the original Ala- 
bama Central. 

Engineer Milner stated in his report to Governor Moore, when his 
laborious and painstaking surveys had been completed, that he had been 
successful in obtaining a line for the Alabama Central which would com- 
pare favorably "in cost, grades, alignments, and everything else with the 
railroads in the neighboring States, and is far better in these respects than 
any other route across the Alleghany Mountains, except, perhaps, the 
Georgia State Road." He considered the long season of doubt and per- 
plexity, which for forty years had embarrassed and confused the desires of 
the people to build the road, finally settled. The cost would be moderate, 
say 823,000 in round numbers per mile; the air line would be one hun- 
dred and four miles and the surveyed line was only one hundred and 
twenty-one miles. The difference, per cent., of variation from the airline 
in the Georgia State Road was more than double the variation in the 
Central Alabama. Having offered convincing proof of the practicability 
of the road, at moderate cost, he proceeded to demonstrate its great 
importance. 

When the engineer set out in obedience to the instructions of the 
Governor "to locate the mineral regions of the State," which might be 
penetrated most profitably by a line of railroad, he successfully accom- 



Early Railroad Lhiildmg. 133 

plished a great work, the importance of which cannot be described. He 
began to do that which has, at last, unlocked the greatest mineral wealth 
of the world, contained in any connected area. A man small in stature, 
taciturn, as strong men of action usually are, quiet and well bred in 
manner, and more ready to hear than deliver opinions. Southern born and 
educated, possessed of the instincts of the Southern gentleman in his walk 
among men — this is the man who, near thirty years ago, came into the 
wilderness of Alabama, far from the trails of commerce, to go back to the 
State capital to speak the portentious words to the Governor: " We are 
now at the beginning of the development of gigantic National resources." 
He wanted the Governor to press forward the action of the legislature in 
the project to aid the Central Railroad. "The ports of the Gulf of 
Mexico are destined soon to be the recipients of the richest commerce 
the world ever saw. Even now one half of the exports of the United 
States pass over this inland sea of ours." These eloquent words of states- 
manship found utterance before their time. In 1858 Alabama was more 
busily engaged in discussing "the rights of the South in the Territories," 
than in the line of Mr. Milner's explorations. The predominant prosper- 
ity, great as it was, and benign in its influences, did not see that it was 
not self-poised or self-sufficient. Slavery had even then passed the "dead 
line." The battle waged for its perpetuation, with gunpowder as the 
arbitrament, came as the inevitable. 

The pioneers of the new industrial life of the State, the civil engineers, 
whose weapons were compass and chain, had indeed decided the problem 
of slavery by preparing the way for its most insatiable enemy, the manu- 
facture of iron by free labor. "We are now in the beginning of the 
development of gigantic National resources," Milner warned Alabama; 
so gigantic indeed, that the disclosed power to reverse- the seat of National 
influence, to bring it South from the North, to make of "the ports of the 
Gulf of Mexico the recipients of the richest commerce the world ever saw. ' ' 

Tiiirty years ago Engineer MUner — the young Southerner, silent, 
meditative, and enthusiastic, told the Governor of Alabama, for publication 
to the world, "we can safely say that coal can be delivered by the Central 
and connecting roads at Mobile and Pensacola, at from five to six dollars 
per ton." This high price for coal stood as an argument in 1858 in favor 
of railroad connection with the mineral region. We find the Mobile 
Register of September 1st, i860, announcing that Alabama (Montevallo) 
coals, even at eight to twelve dollars per ton, were fast driving out 
Pennsylvania coal from that market and had materially reduced prices by 
competition. 



1 34 Jefferson County. 

The Central Railroad now having been completed and become a part 
of the Louisville & Nashville Railway line, and the way opened to the 
half score of great coal mines opened in reach of it, we find the eng- 
ineer's estimated prices of Alabama coals delivered at Mobile to be not 
"five or six dollars" in fact, but <bout one half of that price, with the 
certainty of early reduction. 

Referring to tlie inevitable. Engineer Milner told the Governor, in view 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis' scheme for building a railroad from San Francisco 
to the Atlantic, "the Pacific Railroad, if built from Vicksburg to San 
Francisco, cannot carry freight one half as cheaply to the last named city, 
or to China, as zna Tehauntepec, or Panama. The greatest drawback 
to the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific is the cost of coal. 
Supply this fuel at a cheap rate and the highway of commerce will be 
directly over the Gulf of Mexico and through some one or more of the 
isthmian connections with the Pacific." In intimate relations with the Gulf 
commerce in coal, Mr. Milner pointed out the advantages which must fol- 
low to the cotton trade with Europe and the North. Alluding to New 
Orleans he said, " only small vessels can enter that port." But the great 
social and political revolution which was destined to precipitate the opening 
of the mines of Alabama, also brought to the attention of the world the 
hydraulic engineering talent of James B. Eads. " Eads' Jetties," at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, have opened the port of New Orleans to the 
largest ocean steamers. This was one preparatory step toward that gigantic 
development in close connection with the 1858 survey of the engineer, 
which he had predicted as a consequence of its completion. It was one, 
and a most important victory, easy to win, but grand to plan in that suc- 
cession of circumstances which expose the attitude of Alabama toward 
the countries around the central basin of the Western Hemisphere — the 
Gulf of Mexico. These enumerated circumstances elevate Alabama into^ 
a position toward all the States of the Union bordering on the Gulf, and all 
the country of Central and South America and the Pacific States, China, 
Japan, and the Sandwich Islands, correspondent to the position of Pennsyl- 
vania toward the Atlantic States and Europe. 

The work of Milner and Rodes was the key that unlocked the sources 
of the greatness of Alabama. All honor to them ! Southerners, they 
were prophets of labor; broadened into the realm of mind; forerunners 
of the mighty army of thinkers who catch the thought of the Great First 
Cause. 

The two railroads having been crossed on the site of Birmingham, let 
us inquire into their direct influence in promoting the interests of Alabama. 



Early Railroad Btiilding. 135 

When the line of the Central Railroad had been laid there was not a 
single village between Montgomery and Decatur, its full length of over 
two hundred miles. Now there are numerous towns and villages which 
pay a large part of the State taxes and stimulate the industries of the 
intervening country. The landlocked and unequaled wealth of the mount- 
ains seek this artery of interstate commerce, which carries an influence as 
wide as the Union and overflowing the bounds of the Union. The 
mountain population along its line, which before had been limited in indus- 
try to a rude agriculture without accessible markets, have discovered occu- 
pations more enlarged and enlightening in the mines and manufactures, in 
the railroad, telegraph .and express offices, in the trading shops, hotels, and 
the like. They see more of life, hear more of knowledge, read more, and 
are better citizens and wiser voters. 

The agricultural and manufacturing colony called Cullman was settled 
by the munificence of the South & North Railroad. John G. Cullman, a 
German citizen of the North-West, contracted about 1872 with the railroad 
to take several thousand acres of its land, part of Blount and other counties 
lying along the line of the road. This done, Mr. Cullman, with prompt- 
ness and energy, brought settlers to it from the German colonies of the 
North- Western States and from the Fatherland direct. . When the coloniz- 
ation began, the taxes. State and county, of the area now embraced in 
Cullman County, did not exceed ;^500. The State taxes alone now reach 
the sum of S5, 099.63. 

This experiment is pursued on the poorest quality of land in Alabama. 
Yet it is notably successful. The colonists are industrious and contented. 
Their farms are devoted to profitable market crops, after a sufficiency for 
home consumption has been made safe. At the State Fair of 1886 "the 
Paul Mohr Fruit Company, " of Cullman, exhibited a rare and beautiful 
display of fruit brandies of many kinds, port wines, claret, cordials, 
sirups, etc., manufactured from fruits and grapes grown in the county of 
Cullman. The exhibit proved conclusively that the soil will produce and 
the climate ripen grapes, the wine-making qualities of which successfully 
compete with California. 

The South & North Alabama Railroad terminates at Decatur, and 
crosses the Alabama near Montgomery. Decatur is at the upper end of 
the Mussel Shoals on the Tennessee River. So soon as the canal, now 
nearing completion, shall be opened to navigation, heavy freights from 
Birmingham for the West will have only about one hundred miles rail 
transportation, via the South & North line, to reach water for Paducah and 
all points on the Mississippi and its tributaries. 






XxsiXi-iy lr\;lo^ri<:t5'- 



JOHN T. MILNER. THOJIAS PKTERS. 

THE ELYTON LAND COMPANY. 
JOSIAH MORRIS. JAMES R. POWELL. 

H. M. CALDWELL. W. J. MILNER. D. S. TROY. 

THE WATER WORKS. 
J. W. SLOSS. H. F. DeBAUDELEBEN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

JOHN T. MILNER, 

THE GREAT ENGINEER. 

John Turner Milner was born in Pike County, Georgia, September 
29, 1826. His father, WiUis J. Milner, was a native of Wilkes County, 
Georgia, and his mother, Elizabeth Milner, ncc Turner, was born in 
Edgecombe County, North Carolina. His grandmother, on his father's 
side, was a sister of the Rev. Joshua S. Calloway, who, in his lifetime, 
was one of the most eminent Baptist divines of the State of Georgia. 

The Galloways and Milners of Georgia, and the Turners of North 
Carolina, were plain, matter-of-fact people, and the subject of this sketch 
comes honestly by his simple and unpretentious manners. Like most 





t ,y. ^^^ii^^^t^^A 



Initial Influences. 139 

boys of his part of the State, of that day and time, he went to school 
and worked on the farm alternately. 

He was ten years old when his father moved to Lumpkin County, 
Georgia, to engage in gold mining. This date records the beginning of 
his eventful and interesting career. It commenced in the following inci- 
dent : A little negro boy, a year older than himself, and who had been 
his playmate from birth, was employed as a laborer in rolling the 
earth, containing the precious metal, from a tunnel, or drift, under the 
mountain, on the Pigeon Roost gold vein. This naturally led to a desire 
on his part to be similarly engaged, and he was indulged in the privilege 
of taking a wheel-barrow, suited to his strength, and, joining his play- 
mate, learned his first lessons in mining. Learned them, too, in a far 
more practical and valuable way than could have ever been gained from 
books. 

In the interim, from his twelfth to his fifteenth year, his father was 
engaged in railroad contracting, on an extensive scale, in Georgia, and 
here again we find the future engineer engaged in all kinds of work ren- 
dered necessary in railroad construction, not even refusing to lay his help-' 
ing hands to anything that required his personal superintendence. He 
was everywhere, an active and progressive spirit, and the valuable experi- 
ence thus attained was of inestimable service to him in the labors of man- 
hood. He attributes his great success in later enterprises to the early- 
learned value of a day's labor by the actual observation and personal 
experiences of his youth. Labor is the source of all wealth, and no one 
can direct it so well and properly as he who has performed that part him- 
self which he directs others to do. 

At the age of seventeen young Milner is again found in the gold 
mines near Dahlonega, Georgia, laboring in wet and mud from daylight 
until dark. This is not exaggeration, but a truthful realization. It was 
impossible for one to have become a practical and skillful miner without 
complying with such hardships and fulfilling such conditions as fell to his lot. 
While engaged in this work one of those incidents which seem to be the 
premonition of fate, and which, in their effects, have controlled and directed 
the destinies of many a man, was encountered by this youth. To the 
uninitiated it is well to state that the gold in placer, or deposit mines, lies 
usually in streaks along the branches or creeks, sometimes running along 
the bed of the creek, and again on the one side or the other, often cross- 
ing from side to side in a zigzag course. The Pay streak, on the south 
side of Cane Creek, at the mouth of Pigeon Creek, had given out or been 
lost, or was covered by allu\-ium from twentj' to forty feet deep. The 



1 40 Jefferson Cotitity. 

father had a suspicion, but only a suspicion, where it lay. _The practical 
execution of his theory necessitated a deep excavation, and, besides cost- 
ing a great deal of money, required much labor. To such an ardent 
spirit as the subject of our sketch, however, this task appeared very 
inviting, and no sooner had his father's idea been made known to him 
than he set about to attempt its practical attainment. He took four old 
negroes, who by age were incapacitated for active and hard labor on the 
farm, and began with their assistance the work of making the excavation. 
For weeks and months his father watched the progress of the work with 
patience and hope, earnestly promising himself and his God, as he fre- 
quently afterward told his son and his family, that if the undertaking 
proved a success, " John should goto college." At last the bottom of 
the excavation was reached and a little hole was scooped out, and a trial 
with the first pan of earth yielded one dollar, showing that the rich Pay 
streak had been struck. Without further parley the old negroes were 
called out of the pit, and the next morning, in fulfillment of the condi- 
tional promise, John went to Dahlonega, had two suits of clothes made, 
and soon left for Athens, the seat of the University of Georgia. It was 
in June, near the Commencement Exercises of the institution, and he 
could not be allowed to enter any of the college classes at that season. 
He did not know the Greek alphabet, but Professor McCoy undertook to 
prepare him for college, and in August he entered the Freshman class, 
and, after the second session, stood at the head of his class, where he 
maintained himself for nearly three years, until failing health forced him 
to leave college. 

While wandering around his father's home, gloomy, disappointed, 
and in wretched health, he met the late George H. Hazlehurst, the dis- 
tinguished civil engineer, then engaged on the Macon & Western Rail- 
road, under the presidency of the late General Daniel Tyler. The. mag- 
netic manner of Mr. Hazlehurst was irresistible, and young Milner 
immediately went to work for him, beginning at the bottom, cutting 
bushes and carrying the chain. His advancement here was rapid, for in 
less than two years we find him locating, as the principal assistant engi- 
neer, the Muscogee Railroad, now a part of the Columbus & Macon Rail- 
road. 

As an illustration of the relations then existing between young mas- 
ters and their young negro playmates, we mention an occurrence in which 
the same negro, Stephen, his playmate already mentioned, figured. 
Stephen was with his young master on this survey under Mr. Hazlehurst. 
He was as black as a raven, and almost as sleek, was then about twenty 



Initial Influences. 141 

years old, and of a timid disposition. Hazlehurst was full of life and 
vigor, and would not allow time to hang heavily on his hands. At night, 
rainy days, and on other leisure occasions he would propose a game of 
cards, usually " seven-up." On the particular occasion now referred to, 
Hazlehurst, Milner, Schley, a son of ex-Governor Schley, of Georgia, and 
Steve formed the "gentlemen" of the party, the others being negro 
axmen, cooks, etc. Hazlehurst and Steve were partners, playing against 
Milner and Schley. Neither Milner nor his negro knew the name of a 
single card in the deck, much less how to play a game. Mr. " Hazledy, " 
as the negro called his partner, undertook to initiate him into the mys- 
teries of the game. Hazlehurst, with great earnestness and care, taught 
the negro and explained the game to him. After several games of 
instruction had been tried the playing began in earnest. Stephen was told 
not to let any one look into his hand, and what to do and what not to do ; 
among other points he was instructed how to handle his trumps, aces, 
and other cards. The cards were dealt around, and Stephen, showing the 
whites of his eyes with a broad grin on his countenance, was called on to 
play. Down went the wrong card, and instantly Mr. "Hazledy " reached 
across the table, grabbed Stephen by the wool, and, shaking him, 

exclaimed : " Stephen, you good-for-nothing black , didn't I tell you 

not to play so and so?" The negro, good humoredly and laughing, 
would reply, again and again, "Mr. Hazledy, I thought dat was right, 
sah." Order being restored, the game begun again, and in a few min- 
utes Stephen would violate the rules of the game, and the same hair- 
pulling and head-shaking would be gone through anew. This was the 
only game of cards Mr. Milner ever learned, and the introduction of this 
incident here serves mainly to illustrate the kindly manner in which serv- 
ants were, in the old era, treated by gentlemen of character in the South. 

Hazlehurst and Milner both afterward reached the highest places in 
their profession as civil engineers, and moved in the best society wher- 
ever they went, and yet, when negroes were held as slaves, occupying the 
place Nature appeared to have assigned to the race, they were treated by 
men of social position as companions. Negro slaves and body-servants, 
as a rule, at the South, were privileged characters. They occupied no 
unnatural or strained relations, and acted no such foolish part as they do 
now in the political atmosphere of freed men and women. 

In 1842 young Milner drove an ox team across the plains to Oregon 
and California. Here his knowledge of mining and the use of the pick 
and shovel, learned in the early days, served him a good part. His educa- 
tion and profession also came into play. He was appointed by General. 



142 Jefferson County. 

Riley, the then Provisional Governor of California, Cit)- Surveyor of the 
city of San Jose, the capital of the State. 

In 1852 he returned to Georgia, and shortly afterward went to Ala- 
bama, and began his career in this State on the Montgomery & West 
Point Railroad, at Chehaw, in Macon County. He was, at various times, 
employed on all the railroads of East Alabama. December 30, 1855, he 
was married to Miss Flora J. Caldwell, daughter of John C. Caldwell, of 
Greenville, Ala. 

In 1858 he was commissioned by Governor Moore, under an act of 
the legislature, to survey and locate a railroad line, connecting the navi- 
gable waters of the Alabama River with those of the Tennessee, with the 
view of developing the mineral regions of the State. The line upon 
which the South & North Alabama Railroad was built was selected and 
recommended by Mr. Milner. He was elected Chief Engineer of the 
South & North Alabama Railroad Company November 3, 1858, and con- 
tinued in this position until the railroad was completed, and placed under 
the control of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad system October i, 1872. 

Apart from the confidence inspired by Mr. Milner's earlier record, 
those who became familiar with his work in this latter enterprise, bear 
the highest testimony to the industry, integrity, and intelligence brought 
to bear upon the responsible duties of his high position. As chief 
engineer and simerintendent of this great company his name must live 
Jn Alabama history. 

Retiring from the active management of the South & North Alabama 
Railroad, after its completion, Mr. Milner began to build up his own for- 
tunes. It seemed that everything he touched prospered and turned into 
money. The splendid saw-mill interests at Boiling, Alabama, were 
founded and fostered by him. The great city of Birmingham was pro- 
jected by him, and before Colonel Powell, Josiah Morris, or any others 
thought of such a place, he had entered into a written agreement with 
Mr. R. C. McCalla, as the chief engineer and representative of the 
managers of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad, to buy for their 
respective companies the land at the crossing of the two roads, with the 
view of building a great industrial city. The ground selected and actually 
purchased was in Village Creek Valley, several miles north-west of the 
present site of Birmingham, and extending from a point near Pratt Mines 
toward the east. The whole tract embraced about seven thousand acres. 
This location for the city would have been superior to the present one in 
many respects, and among other things would have possessed the more 
convenient water supply. He was thwarted in his purposes by the sudden 



hit tin! riiflnciU'cs. 14: 

and unwarranted withdrawal of the managers for the Alabama & Chatta- 
nooga people from their written agreement. Instead of continuing the 
construction of their road to the point already agreed upon, they changed 
the location of their line, and, as a preliminary step, bought the present 
site of the city of Birmingham, without any notice whatever to Milner. 
Not knowing exactly where Milner would cross their line, with the South 
& North, they, as a matter of precaution, only took sixty-day options on 
the purchases they had made. After ordering the change of their line from' 
the Village Creek Valley to the Elyton Valley, there was no other available 
crossing except where Birmingham now is. When the change of purpose 
above stated was announced to Milner he felt lonesome and forlorn ; as if he 
were an iceberg, indeed, alone in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean. He had 
been reading and hearing of "Yankee tricks " all his life, but his first expe- 
rience in that line with the Boston men was enough to make the red blood 
in his veins curdle and refuse to circulate, and the hair of his head to 
turn gray. The news of the purchase was brought to him by Baylis E. 
Grace, in his camp in the middle of the proposed site of the new city, 
where he and the Alabama & Chattanooga engineers were busily 
engaged laying off streets, railroad lines, etc. The enormity of the trans- 
action staggered the engineers of both companies, and a written protest 
against the change, signed by Milner and McCalla, the respective chief 
engineers and actors in the matter of locating the new city, was sent to 
Chattanooga. No reply was ever made. There was no alternative for 
Milner but to be "left out in the cold," or to beat his adversaries. The 
latter he claims to have done, thoroughly and well. 

Surveys were made for crossings at every available point above and 
below Elyton for miles. No human being, not even his principal assist- 
ant engineer, knew his chief's purposes or plans. The late Colonel 
Powell, Major Thomas Peters, and others exercised all the ingenuity of 
their acute minds to ascertain where the crossing of the two railroads 
would be located. Threats of personal violence were made. The presi- 
dent nor any one of the directors knew any more than an outsider. 
Throughout the sixty days the little dried-up enigma (Milner was a man 
of short stature) sat in his tent giving out no intimation or sign. The 
excitement and uncertainty grew apace ; the sixty-day options were about 
to expire; the owners of the lands repaired, with their lawyer. Colonel 
Martin, who held their deeds in escrow, to Montgomery, to complete the 
transaction and get their money. The fifty-ninth day passed and no funds 
were at the banking house of Josiah Morris & Company to pay the 
options. The sixtieth day passed and no funds. Five minutes past noon' 



1 4.4. Jefferson County. 

on the sixtieth day Major Campbell Wallace, now of Atlanta, entered Mr. 
Milner's office in Montgomery and threw up his hands, and, with that 
inimitable smile on his face, and that peculiar manner that has won for him 
so many victories in life, said: " Milner, I want you to tell me something, 
if it is right for you to do so, and if it is not right, don't do it. Where 
will the crossing be?" The major was told to come back in three days. 
Three days, the three days of grace allowed in such transactions, passed, 
'and punctually to the minute the major reappeared. He was told that the 
dropped, or forfeited Stanton options, covered the site of the Great City. 
In a few hours Josiah Morris had taken up the last one of these options 
and paid the money on them, and the Boston men were left on an iceberg 
of their own creation. This transaction fully exemplifies Mr. Milner's 
character and capacity. Faithful to the trust confided to him as the engi- 
neer of the South & North Alabama Railroad, he had arranged for his 
company to own half of the great city of the future. Thwarted in this 
he set about deliberately to compass the defeat of his adversaries. Mild- 
mannered, gentlemanly, and well balanced, he rarely ever fails in the end 
to come out even with an adversary. 

We see displayed here the elements of character, caution, patience, 
perseverance, and intelligence, which have placed John T. Milner in the lead 
among the thinking and successful men of Alabama in the new era. 

His later achievement, the development and sale of the Coalburg Coal 
property, near Birmingham, to the Georgia Pacific Railroad people, in May, 
1883, at a profit of over two hundred thousand dollars, is in perfect accord 
with the features of his past record. 

Before effecting the sale of this valuable property, Mr. Milner had 
already begun the development of his present splendid possessions at New 
Castle, about nine miles east of the city of Birmingham, and situated on 
the road which he, as chief engineer, located about a quarter of a century 
ac^o. New Castle coal, in addition to the usual good qualities possessed by 
Alabama coals, will also make splendid coke, an indispensable requisite to 
pig-iron making. It is not at all unlikely that furnace fires may soon be 
seen glowing there, enhancing, in a threefold degree, the value of this 
property. 

He is also an owner of valuable property in the city of Birmingham, 
being a stockholder in the most important land companies here, and being 
yet remarkably well preserved ; and with his present large accumulations 
of wealth, and with his known energy and sagacity, it would be not easy 
to predict what his course in the future may reveal, of fortune or honor. 

Mr. Milner, while making no pretensions as a man of letters, writes 



Initial Influences. 145 

sensibly, fluently, and even eloquently. His book, " Alabama as It Was, 
as It Is, and as It Will Be," written soon after the war, sustains appreciably 
the truth of this view of his attainments. 

His newspaper discussion of the Convict Question in Alabama, a few 
years ago, proves him to be a no mean antagonist in that line of controversy. 

Mr. Milner has lived to see the verification of his hopes and predic- 
tions respecting the mineral region of the State of Alabama. He enter- 
tained these views tenaciously, when other men considered them the 
creations of a vain fancy. 

His home is the seat of perfect domestic felicity, and he is now sur- 
rounded by his children and grandchildren, who are to him sources of 
perennial happiness. 



THOMAS PETERS, 

THE PIONEER EXPLORER. 

While as yet no railroad had opened to commerce the land-locked 
mineral weath of Alabama, and the fame of no city had published it to 
the world. Major Thomas Peters traveled on foot across the mountains of 
ore and coal, and the valleys of limestone between ; and his narrative of 
what he saw was better heeded and did more at that time to persuade men 
of means and enterprise to come to see for themselves, and, following their 
inquiry, to buy and take up their abode in the midst of this unparalleled 
prodigality of resources than any other moral influence known to history. 

Thomas Peters was born October 29, 18 12, in Wake County, North 
Carolina. His ancestors were one of the English families who came to 
Virginia, three brothers, and settled near Petersburg, in the reign of 
Charles II. When Thomas was three years old James P. Peters, his father, 
moved from Wake County, North Carolina, to Maury County, the cele- 
brated agricultural and live-stock breeding region of Middle Tennessee, and 
settled near Spring Hill. Fifteen years later the family moved to Henry, 
one of the western counties of the same State. 

After receiving the limited degree of education which the common 
schools of a thinly-populated country, then mostly in" forest, could offer, 
Thomas entered his long and distinguished business career as a clerk on a 
steamer plying between Nashville and New Orleans via the Cumberland 
and Mississippi Rivers. Several thousand bales of cotton and one or two 
hundred passengers, many of these the owners of the cotton, constituted 
a boat load in those days for first-class craft on these waters. The planters, 



1 46 Jefferson County. 

with tlieir wives and daughters, were bound for New Orleans, there to sell 
their crops and lay in a twelve-month supply for the family and the slaves of 
all that the market afforded of luxuries and necessaries. On the passenger 
manifest were often names of professional sports, and gambling ran high in 
the fortnight or so of time in which the passage was consumed. On these 
boats was wont to be seen the celebrated Bowie, the inventor of the knife 
bearing his name, which settled many disputes arising from the games 
played by him and his compagnons de ivjag-e. In this trying school young 
Peters learned to be patient, brave, and temperate. The sympathetic nature 
of the young man ripened under the discipline of this responsible position, 
and this varied observation of human nature. His life was enlarged, and 
his mind learned to weigh the strength and the weakness of men with won- 
derful accuracy. All comments now made upon a long and useful life, 
closed in honor, with one consent agree that no motive ever entered it 
which was not exalted, and no hope ever moved it to action which was 
beneath the standard of the strictest integrity and the highest sense of 
responsibility to society and to God. Like refined gold his character came 
from its trials purified. 

At the early age of twenty-one Mr. Peters was successfully engaged 
in buying and selling lands in the South-Western States. He bought 
considerable tracts from the Indians in the northern counties of Missis- 
sippi, who sold their possessions preparatory to their removal to the trans- 
Mississippi reservations. 

In 1837, when twenty-five years old, Mr. Peters married Miss Ann 
Eliza Glasgow, of Tennessee. He then moved to a plantation and became 
a cotton grower. Five years later his wife died, childless. Nine years from 
the date of his first marriage he married Miss Sarah J. Irion. After thirteen 
years she died, leaving a daughter as the only offspring. This daughter, 
Amelia L., grew into a rarely beautiful and accomplished woman, and 
became the wife of Robert H. Henley, the first mayor of Birmingham. 

As contractor Mr. Peters built thirty-five miles of the Memphis & 
Charleston Railroad. He was living in Memphis as a real estate broker at 
this time, and besides the railroad work took contracts on levee build- 
ing along the Mississippi. 

While living in Memphis the war of 1861 came on, and he entered 
it with zeal in his forty-ninth year. He was appointed, by the Governor of 
Tennessee, and commissioned as chief quartermaster of the State troops. 
On a more complete organization of the Confederate army he was com- 
missioned major in that service, and assigned to the duties of quartermaster 
on the staff of Major-General Leonidas Polk. Major Peters remained in 



Initial Influences. 147 

the field in this capacity until after the fall of General Polk and the 
assumption of the command of the Army of the Tennessee by General 
Hood. 

In 1864 he was ordered to Selma to take command of army transpor- 
tation under General Richard Taylor. Here the surrender of the Confed- 
erate armies found him. 

There was a Confederate arsenal at Selma, and Alabama iron was used 
there for casting cannon and other military purposes. The excellent 
quality of the metal suggested, to the quick faculties of Major Peters, an 
investigation of the sources of supply. From this preliminary came his 
early explorations and transactions in mineral lands in Jefferson County. 
He received his parole from the Federal authorities in April, 1865, and 
promptly directed his energies toward explorations for ores and coal into 
the mountains of Alabama. He spoke urgently of his faith to all who 
would listen. He was too poor to buy a horse, but he walked alone on 
his mission. Penniless and on foot he traversed the unknown forests, 
locating mineral lands, and making the way plain to men of wealth, w horn 
he declared, in his enthusiasm, must come to them. 

Having accomplished all that any one man might before the railroads 
should penetrate the favored lands, IVIajor Peters went to reside in Minne- 
sota with his son-in-law, Mr. Henley, who was forced to try that climate for 
his failing health. From there he went to Savannah, Ga. , to engage in 
the cotton trade. In 1869 he returned permanently to Jefferson County. 
Birmingham was not then on the map. He settled in Elyton, the county 
seat, and engaged in mineral land speculations, and in concentrating on 
Jefferson County a most valuable spirit of inquiry. 

Major Peters was living in Birmingham, one of the most generally 
respected and beloved of citizens, when the Louisville Exposition of 1883 
invite'd the display of specimens of the mineral and other resources of 
Alabama there. Against the protest of friends, who thought a man in 
his seventy-first year should not undergo the fatigue of the office, he went 
to take charge of the large exhibit made by the Alabama railroads from 
their lands and those bordering. He soon succumbed to overwork and 
an acute attack of cold, and died, attended by many friends, at an infirmary 
»iq that city. The remains were brought to Birmingham at once for inter- 
ment. When the last offices of respect to the body were to be performed 
the demonstrations of public sympathy were complete. The houses of 
business in the city were closed, and a great procession escorted it to the 
city cemetery. 

From early life Major Peters had been an active member of the Meth- 
9 



1 48 Jefferson County. 

odist Episcopal Church South. His unobtrusive charitj- in deeds, and the 
entire absence of slander from his tongue, and the transparent purity of 
his life, erected a character beloved by all classes and trusted everywhere. 



THE ELYTOX LAND COMPANY. 

THE FOUNDER OF THE NEW ER.\ .\ N.\TIONAL BENEF.ACTOR. 

Stock worth Seventeen Cents rises, gradually, to Thirty-Five 

Dollars — An Original Capital Stock of $200,000 Pays 

Annual Dividends of 100 to 340 per centum, and is now 

Valued at over $15,000,000 — Gives Birmingham more than 

$1,000,000 — A Policy of Progress and Liberality. 

When Mr. Josiah Morris, the Montgomery banker, came forward to 
close the options taken on the 4, 150 acres of land by Mr. J. C. Stanton, 
as we have seen, and which Mr. Stanton had forfeited, the titles were all 
taken in Mr. Morris' name, and the land became his individual property. 
There was, nevertheless, no purpose on the part of the transferee to hold 
possession longer than necessary to allow the company to relieve him of 
the purchase. He reserved 500 shares of the 2,000 shares issued for his 
bank and for himself individually, and assigned the remainder to the 
company. The number of shares now held by the same parties is 520. 

Titles. 

Property rights in the land purchased had a short and exceedingly 
simple history. Every acre was known by township, range, section, and 
fraction of a section, the numbers having been located under the survey of 
the United States Government. The settlers who came to enter it orig- 
inally had acquired the Government titles, all of which were of record in the 
Government land offices. These original settlers had been a remarkably 
conservative, contented, and patriotic class, seldom carrying any part of 
their lands into the market ; or, if selling them at all, never failing to 
convey clear title deeds, as the terms of sale required. There were no 
banks or other facilities in the vicinity to encourage speculation. The 
agricultural monopoly was unbroken, and the crops were all consumed at 



Initial hifliiences. 149 

home, except the cotton ; and even of that staple no inconsiderable part 
was spun by the teak wheel, found in the corner of every family sitting- 
room, and woven by the hand-loom, which sat, under a shed beneath the 
eaves of the humble family abode, on the ground. 

The vendors of Mr. Morris' 4, 150 acres of farm land, a large portion 
of it lying in brush, tanglewood, and stately timber of oak, dogwood, 
walnut, cedar, chestnut, hickory, ash, elm, and pine, the other in corn 
and cotton plantations, were possessed of the mountaineer's devotion to 
his home, and consented to the banker's terms with no undisguised reluct- 
ance. Twenty-five dollars per acre was the purchasing price, cash. This 
price, however, carried with it an irresistible temptation ; it could never be 
expected from any other source. The desired area, in a body, was 
obtained, some of the settlers preferring to take a part of the amount due 
them on the sale in the stock of the company. It thus appears that 
disputed titles to lots sold by the company are not to be numbered 
among the possibilities overhanging its business in the real estate line. 
The lawyers of Birmingham seldom find a case involving claims to titles 
to lots in litigation, and all such cases, of the fewest as they are, originate 
between parties without connection in the most remote degree with the 
validity of the company's transfers. 

The Name. 

Among the land agents of the Federal Government on duty in 
Jefferson County was one Ely, a " down-easter, " hailing from the State of 
Connecticut. The hearty hospitality which had opened its arms to the 
stranger at the threshold of every pioneer's cabin hidden in the forest, 
throughout the long distances of his journey, touched that spring of 
human nature in his heart which " makes all the world akin." Mr. Ely 
found the few scores of settlers of Jefferson County who, sixty-six years 
ago, became, perchance, his generous hosts, as the shadows of night 
closed in upon his weary tramp with compass and chain through the 
wilderness — found them animated by the true spirit of American citizen- 
ship, anxious to establish a village and trading center to be the capital of 
Jefferson County. In ardent sympathy with their hopes and needs, he 
gave the county, as a pledge of his affection, a quarter section of land 
(160 acres) for the site of its capital. In just appreciation of the gener- 
ous act the county named its capital Elyton. "The Elyton Land Com- 
pany " is a euphonic title, and no fault is to be laid against the organizers 
on the score of taste in choosing a name. It is destined to become a 



1 50 Jefferso7i Coiinty. 

classic name. But why did they select it? The land of the company, 
lying about the railroad crossing, had been purchased to found a city 
upon, and the village of Ely ton, being only one or two miles distant to 
the westward, must inevitably be absorbed in the growth of the city, 
provided the company should succeed in building up a city to perpetuate 
its own name and mission. The gift of the humble but generous Con- 
necticut land agent, cast upon the fortunes of Jefferson County, has 
returned to his memory with rich honors. His humble name is indissol- 
ubly united to the most active, most comprehensive, and most enduring 
incorporated enterprise in the entire Southern country, and one which is 
even now named throughout the commercial world as the most influential 
factor in the central city of the future greatest iron manufacturing indus- 
try in the United States. When wc reflect that iron manufactures possess 
the singular power to call into activity a greater multitude of subsidiary 
industries than any other influence known to man, we may discover how 
amply secure in fame is the name of the humble land agent incorporated 
into the work of the great company. 

Early Career. 

The company organized, January 26, 187 1, under a charter granted by 
the State of Alabama. James R. Powell was elected President. The 
President took up his abode in the new town, and devoted a restless energy, 
suggestive mind, and indomitable will ceaselessly to the work of advertising 
throughout the United States and Europe the mineral wealth surrounding 
it. It was he who surprised the country by calling upon the Alabama 
Press Association to meet here two years in succession, and to invite 
the New York Press Association to participate in its last meeting. The 
New Yorkers were twitted by the pluck of the proffered hospitality of a 
town boastfully claiming a future, while at that moment it had neither place 
on the map to be pointed out to the traveler, nor convenient inn for the 
entertainment of visitors. Turning to the project of Colonel Powell, the 
New York newspaper men resolved to accept the consequences of what 
they presumed to be a practical joke. They came, saw, and by their pens 
conquered a place in the literature of the world's journalism for Birming- 
ham. They saw Red Mountain, near an hundred miles long, a bank of 
red hematite. They saw the farmers living around the new-born town 
hauling over its clay streets, or in by-cuts across its vacant, unfenced lots, 
ox-team loads of the most beautiful coal, grubbed from the hillsides of 
their pasture lands. With one consent the New York Press Association 



Initial Infliiences. 151 

turned upon the world a flood-light of information on their discovery of 
Birmingham. Hundreds of thousands of laborers, mechanics, investors, 
and speculators in the United States and in Europe saw that light reflected 
from the white paper which beguiled their evening hours. This masterful 
stroke of policy on the part of the first President of the Elyton Land 
Company incalculably advanced the future of the city. It stands out in 
the narrative of the marvelously rapid growth here seen like the fame of 
Desaix at Marengo, or of McDonald at Wagram. It accomplished by a 
single move the safety of a grand and crowning plan. 

The Organization of the Company 

was effected January 26, 187 1. The plan of the city was determined, and 
Major M. P. Barker, a thoroughly-educated and accomplished civil engin- 
eer, began the important work of laying off the streets, avenues, 
alleys, reservations for churches, parks, and the railroads, already here, 
and others to come. And what a perfect plan was this so admirably 
executed ? 

The area of old fields and tanglewood to be checkered off into squares, 
bound by highwa}'S of the future city, under the skill, taste, and pains- 
taking care of the faithful engineer, lay stretched out before him. Charged 
\\\ this arduous professional work stood the task of laying the foundation 
of the grand industrial revival of Alabama! Around Birmingham it 
was felt by all who had hope, as the pioneers here hoped, must gather 
the springs of the new life which, in due time, would diffuse its ener- 
gies into the rich gifts of nature concentrated in the bounds of this com- 
monwealth. Timber lands as bountiful as those of Michigan; farming 
lands as rich as the valley of the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, the Ohio, or 
the Mississippi ; many deep and beautiful streams, suited to the carriage of 
commerce ; a matchless climate, and in the center of this magnificence of 
endowment lay the most abundant deposits of iron in the world ; the 
thickest coal seams in the Union ; limestone in inexhaustible supply, and 
marble beds, to which the world must turn in amazement at proof of their 
profusion and excellence of quality. 

Here sits the city, its plan a model, in harmony with the simplicity 
and rugged strength of iron. Like a chess board it spreads out, upon 
which are daily and hourly moved the fortunes of thousands of men, 
women, and children, who live here to work and to prosper amidst becom- 
ing occupations, and in the atmosphere of a matured society, where the 
most liberally-constructed public-school system of the South prevails, and 



152 Jefferson Coiinty. 

churches and social organizations flourish in a degree commensurate with 
the material prosperity. 

Major Barker ran his lines over nearly two thousand acres of the 
Elyton Land Company's purchase. The squares are 300 to 400 feet 
front. The streets are fifty-six feet between sidewalks, which are 
twelve feet wide on each side. The streets are laid out from north- 
east to south-west. Across all the streets, running at right angles 
are avenues sixty feet between the curbstones. Thus the western and 
eastern sides of every square in the city are bounded by wide streets, 
while the northern and southern sides are bounded by wider avenues. 
Every square is bisected by an alley twenty feet in width, and running 
in the same direction with the avenues. The ventilation thus provided 
is admirable. 

The Railroad Reservation 

is a tract of open land running through the center of the plan, from north- 
east to south-west, and therefore parallel with the avenues. This reservation 
is devoted to the purpose of railroad entrance and exit to and from the city. 
It is a reach of valley with abundant fall, however, to drain storm water. 
It is easily approached from all the highways of the city, and, as the railroad 
buildings and commercial warehouses begin to border the open space, the' 
many long reaches of iron tracks, laden with a ceaseless hurrying up 
and down of long trains of cars, bearing the private brand of many 
corporations and lines of commerce, create of the railroad reservation a 
little world in itself. There is an open free public bridge spanning the 
railroad reservation, at a central point, and connecting Birmingham 
"South" with Birmingham "North" of the railroads. Over this pass 
continuously a stream of foot-passengers, trains of street cars drawn by 
steam motors, pleasure carriages, and loaded drays. It is one thousand 
feet long, and is a present to the city by the Elyton Land Company. From 
the arch of the bridge are plainly seen the furnaces in the distance, 
with their quenchless fires, at either end of the city, the various other 
iron industries, the flouring mills, the magnificent Union Passenger Depot, 
the rolling mills, the wholesale grocery warehouses, the cotton warehouse 
and compress, numberless lumberyards, railroad shops, all lining the mazy 
iron pathway stretching out to the northward and southward. 



Initial Influences. 15^ 



The First Sale 

of lots of the company was advertised to begin June i, 1871, nearly six 
months before the date of the city charter. The bouyant spirits who came 
to pledge their faith by putting down their cash for titles to these were the 
pledges of the new life to Alabama. The railroads had not then become 
available to passenger travel. The Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad had 
a finished track passing Birmingham, connecting both termini, but no 
management had as yet been provided for it equal to performing the 
ordinary duties and conveniences of a railroad. There were no regular 
trains, either by the day or the week. The South & North Railroad had 
not been completed to within many miles of the city from the North. 
The railroads, however, had driven out the long-operated four-horse 
stage-coach lines, thus reducing the opportunities of the traveler to the 
greatest certainty. 

The bright June day came for the marketing of Birmingham lots. 
These had all been numbered and wooden pins driven into the ground to 
mark the limits. The branch water flowed across them in undisputed 
right of way ; the browsing cattle and the birds, feeding their unfledged 
broods in the boughs of the trees, were the sole visible occupants. Many 
hopeful speculators had come, some of both sexes, and some who had 
walked for miles, because at the termini of one of the railroads they could 
find no conveyance, private or public. The initial day of the destiny of 
Birmingham opened clear and bright. The sale of lots was satisfactory. 
The first lot was bought by Major A. Marre. He may then be properly 
termed 

The First Settler. 

His ample fortune has matured from the faith that was then in him. The 
major paid the company $150 for a lot, now in the heart of the city, on 
the corner of First avenue and Nineteenth street. The value of this 
property now, after some six or seven years steady growth of the city, 
may be indicated in the market value of the lot corner of First avenue 
and Twentieth street, one block away. The latter lot, unimproved, was 
sold recently for $1,000 per front foot. By corresponding ratio of increase 
Major Marre's original investment of $150 would now command ;^ioo,ooo. 
The lot on the opposite side of the street from Major Marre's Si 50 purchase 
was sold at public auction, in the rain, last June, to Mr. Josiah Morris 
at $635 per front foot. It will be remembered that Mr. Morris owned 



1 54 Jefferson County. 

this land less than twenty years before, and transferred it to the company 
at the rate of $25 per acre. Upon the Morris lot is now being erected a 
five-story business house, stone and iron front, to be of the latest archi- 
tectural design. 

The two years following 1872-73 the company sold less than $IOO,000 
wortli of lots. It did not sell as much as $25,000 worth in 1873. In 
1873 the cholera epidemic visited the city. The stores were closed and 
the population deserted their houses. The president of the company, 
who was then mayor of the city, remained at his post of duty, and 
participated, in the most active manner, in every available relief measure, 
giving his personal attention to the details. The financial panic, known as 
Black Friday, of September of this year, originating in New York among 
the speculative stocks of Wall street, at once involved every innocent 
commercial business throughout the Union. In Alabama the people were 
almost wholly dependent for the means of paying their debts and providing 
means for life upon the sales of their cotton crop, then being harvested. 
For weeks no sales could be made. The banks were practically closed. 
Even the depositors could only procure a small pro rata of their cash bj' 
paying discount on their own drafts. 

An agricultural community recovers slowly from such panics. It was 
upon the more adventurous of the agriculturists that the Elyton Land 
Company must chiefly rely for the sale of its lots. The sons of cotton 
planters who might hope to better their fortunes by removal here, to 
engage in the new opportunities — the lawyers, doctors, school teachers, 
was the population to be expected. In 1874 the sales reached ^7,955.83. 
Indeed, from 1873 to January, 1879, ^^ ''ggi'^g'^te sales had amounted 
only to 555,516.70 — five years time. In all this time there was scarcely a 
movement amidst the stagnation ponderously settled upon the hopes of 
the town. The desk of the secretary of the company had been attached 
for debt. The stock was offered at seventeen cents on the dollar, and with 
difficulty found a purchaser. Within this time the company had borrowed 
;? 100,000 to erect the complete sj'stem of water works now in operation. 
Payment fell due. All the stock and assets of the company were far 
below the cash value of ^ 100, 000. The creditors resorted to the courts. 
There was a meeting of the stockholders. It was agreed that the 
mortgage bonds of the company should be issued for a sufficient amount 
to pay off the' debt. The money was raised after considerable difficult)' 
upon the bonds, and the original creditors satisfied. But the water 
works, constructed to supply enough of the waters of the neighboring 
mountain stream. Village Creek, must find rent-pa)-ers. Vacant store- 



Initial Influences. 155 

houses and private residences must open, and new ones must be built, or 
the enterprise of the company in supplying the pipes and hydrants would 
return to plague the inventor. 

Colonel James R. Powell had resigned the presidency, and retired to 
his cotton plantation in the Yazoo Valley. 

Dr. Henrv M. Caldwell, 

a native of Butler County, this State, then forty years old, one of 
the original incorporators of the company, was elected to be his 
successor. His quick perception convinced him that this spot was to 
-be the heart of the revived life of Alabama. From this source would 
spread outward the nerves of all industry. To it would ultimately 
Tje attracted the character of a distributive center for a great commerce. 
The lines of this commerce would multiply so as to penetrate the regions 
of the great plantations, would establish towns, villages, and trade along 
their courses, would influence the \'alue of lands, and the wages of labor 
in remote regions. Here, therefore, this man of forecast, motive, energy, 
and courage cast his lines. 

We are apt only to call him a statesman who makes wise laws and 
provides for their execution. He is first a statesman who approaches the 
wealth of nature, and taking it by his will power, bodily up, distributes 
•its blessings in reach of the manipulation and usufruct of the multitude. 
He is first a statesman who prepares the public to rise to the need of 
laws, and to the circumstances of community interests. He it is who 
realizes the value of public character. 

Dr. Caldwell was made President of the Elyton Land Compan)- in 
1875. There was practically no salary. The highest aim of the great 
corporation was to draw the breath of life. But in this comatose state 
physically, so to speak, the company, under his masterful and courageous 
polic)% laid a plan of action. It persevered in opening streets ; it adver- 
tised its property, and sold what it could at merely nominal rates; 
whoever wanted a lot, to build on it a storehouse or residence, fixed his 
own price and paid it. It has also been the policy of the company to 
•assist enterprises seeking entrance to the city. It paid no dividends until 
1883 — thirteen years of patience and faith and labor. 

Every $i,000 originally invested in the stock of the Elyton Land 
Company had paid about $18,000 in dividends up to January I, 1887. 

The assets of the company were, originally, ^200,000; that is, of the 
face valuation in 1870, when the stock was all taken. 



156 Jefferson County. 

The assets of the company now, some sixteen years later, but witli 
only eight years of actual solvency and growth, are fully ^Sl 5,000,000. 

The sales of the company in August, 1886, amounted to over one 
million of dollars, and in October of the same year were even greater. 

The stock is not on the market. A few shares might be bought 
possibly for $35 on the $\, face value. 

The dividend declared for 1886 was 340 per cent. The increase of 
the value of assets of the corporation, estimated December, 1886, as 
compared with the same date of the year previous, was, perhaps, 50 per 
cent. 

There are fifty-four stockholders at present. The smallest number of 
shares held by any one person or interest is one ; the largest is five hundred 
and twenty. The individual holders are of both sexes, mercantile firms,, 
trustees, and bankers. 

The Alice Furnace Comp.^ny, 

with a capital of $800,000, was the first iron-making industry erected in 
the vicinity of Birmingham, and it is suggestive of tiie character of the 
Elyton Land Company that the iron company should have become, in the 
initiation of its efforts, the beneficiary of its favors. The land company 
gave of its own strength to the iron company, giving the land upon which 
it operates its capital ; the iron company gave to the land company of its 
fame, to be thenceforward known throughout the channels of the commerce 
of the world. 

The Alice Furnace Company made the first pig iron thrown on the 
market from Birmingham, and the enterprise was presided over by Mr. 
Henry DeBardeleben, a pioneer investor in the mineral development of 
Alabama, and who has the honor of having led the first practical coal 
mining by the opening of the Pratt Mines. 

The Birmingham Rolling Mills, 

with a capital of $100,000, built its works (the only works of its kind 
south of the Ohio) on lands given to the company by the Elyton Land 
Company. 

More than One Million of Dollars, 

present value of property, has been given by this company to the city of 
Birmingham, not including the streets, avenues, and alleys. This princely 



hiitial Influences. 157 

donation consists in real estate and improvements. The public parks 
within the city, lots to churches, to schools, markethouse, county court- 
house, railroad reservation, a free public bridge, one thousand feet long, 
arching the railroads, are among its donations. 

The private property of the company in public service is various and 
numerous in details. The water works owned by it, now completed and 
in use, consist of two engines, with the latest improvements, erected on the 
bank of Village Creek, some two miles from the center of the city. The 
rocky bottom of the stream, and the never-failing supply for a population 
of 50,000, not omitting the recommendation of nearness to the con- 
sumers — an item of no inconsiderable moment to a corporation under- 
taking to supply water to a town, not yet built, by the expenditure of 
$100,000 in machinery and fixtures — these conditions prevailed to fix 
the works where they now are. The reservoirs for receiving the creek 
water, are placed on the summit of a mountainous elevation on the 
northern outskirts of the city. They are well guarded and protected 
from pollution. The pressure of the water is sufficient in the pipes leading 
to the city for all practical purposes. Water can be thrown from hose to 
the top of an ordinary three-story building. The steam fire engine is, 
however, relied upon to extinguish fires. The water rents of the 
company range from $4.7$ to $6.25 per quarter for private residences and 
like consumers. The company supplies water to the furnaces, all indus- 
tries, and to the city fire-plugs on fixed terms. 

There are a number of wells relied upon by families within the city 
limits. The Birmingham Brewery, the ice factory, and one of several 
steam laundries take the water consumed by their respective works from 
a large running stream which breaks out from the rocks at the foot of 
the mountains on the southern boundary of the city. 

Lakeview Park. 

The company owns some fifteen hundred acres of mountainous wood 
land of rare natural beauty, where narrow serpentine valleys and rocky 
acclivities mark the landscape, situated about a mile to the south-east of 
the city. In the midst of this wilderness of nature the springs flowing 
out from the mountain sides have been trained to form, in thecrescentlike 
valley, a lake of limpid waters, whose borders follow the curves of the 
base of the elevated hillsides around them. Bordering the lake is a 
pavilion overlooking it ; a boathouse, where small boats in fanciful colors, 
the beaming "Water Nymph," "Naiad," and other becoming names. 



158 Jefferson County. 

are kept for pleasure-seekers. A wide veranda to seat large numbers of 
lookers-on, a dance hall opening over the water, a modern restaurant 
adjoining, and bathrooms are the conveniences of the pavilion. 

On the bordering mountain-tops the company has built cottages 
for a summer tenantry. Among them is a clubhouse, where gentlemen 
•of leisure may resort to engage in games, read, or swing in hammocks 
under the trees, while looking over upon the busy life in the city in the 
valley below. Lakeview is connected with the center of the city by the 
company's steam-motor railway. Every thirty minutes, from sunrise to 
midnight, trains run over the line. It is a most delightful ride, on a bright 
day, to take the train for Lakeview, which circles around among the 
valleys and along the hillsides, at every turn exposing to the eye some 
new enterprise — a solid brick residence here, a fresh-painted cottage there, 
a pile of lumber and earnest workmen with tools yonder. 

There is a mineral spring at the pavilion of rarest medical properties ; 
indeed, as a renovator and tonic its waters are unsurpassed in the Union, 
in some cases. On Sundaj-s and holidays thousands from the city flock to 
Lakeview. The mineral spring and cool freestone spring waters, the rustic 
seats along the hillsides, the boats on the lake, the timely refreshments 
at the ever-ready and always-neat restaurant, the broad drives are there. 
Some go by coach-loads, some fair maids to drive themselves in hand- 
some light phaetons, some young men by bicycle, crowds walk the near 
by-ways over the fields, fun-seeking by the way — but the great multitude 
go by the five-cent motor line, fifteen minutes time to go or come. 

The profits of the line, as a separate enterprise, do not comprehend 
its most material benefits to the company, the line passing in and out for 
the several miles of length among the company's building lots, small 
patches of hillside and mountain-top. Facility for reaching these lots is 
afforded the merchant, banker, and others engaged in business in the city. 
Accessibility determines the value of even natural advantages. Hence, both 
directly in fares and indirectly in appreciation of values in realty, the 
motor line proves itself to have been a masterly policy in the president's 
management ; other conceptions of his have been equally so. 

It is related that, along in the earlier months of the revival of the 
fortunes of the company, a few years ago. Dr. Caldwell invited Mr. Josiah 
Morris, with one or two others of the stockholders, to drive in a hack 
with him into the suburbs. Passing through the streets of the city, and 
across the valley surrounding, the vehicle presently began to climb the 
hills, the wheels running here into the washed-out ruts of a country path, 
and, with a great jolt, there striking against a tree-stump or a boulder. 



Initial hifliicnces. 159- 

"Where are we to stop, Dr. Caldwell?" shouted Mr. Morris in alarm 
and amazement at the progress of the journey. " We arc bound for the 
Park," exclaimed Dr. Caldwell, with mock solemnity and matter of course. 
"The Park? It is an impracticable drive we are on, and a Pickwickian 
'Park,' I vow, we are invited to see," retorted the jostled banker. "Ah! 
Dr. Caldwell, you had your own way," the banker now placidly exclaims, 
as the motor dashes around the graceful curves, of the railway successor 
to the old hack path, to the realized "Park," to deposit him with his- 
coinpagno7is de voyage, bent on resting in. the shades over the lake, and 
drinking the health-giving waters of the springs. 

We ought to say something of the corporate life, which presents to 
the world so remarkable an exhibition of practical sympathy with the 
general life around it as does this company. It is not necessary to surmise 
that the single motive of the Elyton Land Company is self-aggrandizement. 
We have only to follow up the singleness of its purpose in the paths, it has 
chosen to walk in, to discover that it has, from first to last, worked for its- 
own promotion. It is in the wisdom of its methods we find the felicitous 
exercise of its right to live. The company has always been a land specu- 
lator. It bought, as we have said, 4,150 acres of land for $100,000. 
Upon, say, one half of this area streets are laid off, now incorporated or 
to be incorporated speedily. The company was organized to build a city. 
The earnings af many individual citizens of Birmingham, men and women, 
through their lives of labor, have reached the original amount of the 
capital stock of the company. The company now owns about the same 
number of acres as in the original purchase. It has sold about two-thirds 
of its original purchase in realty, and selling so many acres here, has 
purchased, from time to time, other lands near by, so as to approximately 
preserve its acreage. The company, as we have said, has so used its. 
lands — for it owned nothing but lands to start upon, and moreover its 
lands and water works only have been allowed to enter its operations — 
it has so used its lands that, practically, it has raised their market value 
from $100,000 originally invested to some $15,000,000, present value. 
Has the action of the corporation been consistent with the rights of indi- 
viduals not of the corporation? Admitting that the stockholders, 
each man and woman, each adult and minor, have grown rich in the 
operations of the company in buying and selling land, has the pros- 
perity of the few benefitted the many, or has it existed, in great part, as 
extortion and unjust power? This company is the most important and 
the richest corporation in the State of Alabama, and fair inquiry into its 
methods becomes especially interesting at this time. It has been more 



i6o Jefferson County. 

active than any other agency in inviting new energies to enter Alabama, 
and has accomph'shed more than any other influence in bringing to the 
test the wiUingness and capacity of the people of Alabama to lay hold of 
the wealth of natural resources around them, to exalt it into "a thing of 
joy forever." 

Thousands of workingmen and women have flocked to the city of the 
Elyton Land Company. The policy of the company invited them to 
come, and the practical dealings of the company with the industries, 
which employs them, and often with the individual men and women 
has continued their domicil here. The company has always sold its lands 
within a very moderate market price. As we have already remarked, the 
purchaser who desired to build a house to live in or to do business in, in the 
early years of the life of the company, fixed his own price and took titles 
to the property. Later the company has not wavered from its policy, 
except that the conditions being changed, it has advanced definite terms 
and prices to correspond. It sells land now to parties who design to build 
manufactories, to railroad companies, who need terminal facilities, on long 
time and comparatively low rates. It contributed the ground and took 
stock in the latest built of the blast furnaces of the city. The company 
will build houses for workmen to live in on its own land and accept 
monthly payments on the sale of the property to the occupant, to extend 
over many months' time, without charge of rent on the same holding. In 
a word, the tenant becomes practically a purchaser of the property, which 
he acquires in fee simple, by gradual extinguishment of the debt, for the 
purchase, in the liberal but reasonable system of month!}- payments of 
installments. 

The needed encouragement thus given to practical industries has 
diversified and enlarged very greatly, even in this early period of the 
experiment, the opportunities for labor in Alabama ; and it is the Alabama 
people who have most largely embraced them and profited b)- them. The 
development of the county of Jefferson, mainly accruing from the foun- 
dation and growth of Birmingham, has already elevated it from the former 
rank of "pauper," drawing more from the State Treasury for ordinary 
support than it contributed, to a highly important taxpayer. Not only 
does the property accumulated in the county pay largely of the taxes of 
the State, but the railroads crossing at Birmingham, and which could not 
live without the support of the industries concentrated here, pay largely 
of the receipts reaching the State exchequer. 

It is easy to trace the ramifications of the policy of the Elyton Land 
Company, as they disclose themselves in the interest of labor, brought by 



Initial Inftucnces. i6i 

that policy to live in Birming-ham. Let us inquire what the indirect results 
have been. The existence of tlie town has not been more inarked by 
rapid progress in building and growth in population than it has been in 
freedom from feverish excitement, "bulling" and "bearing" in markets 
of all kinds. The conservative administration of the preponderating 
interests of the company has been a break-water to all such conspiracies 
against the public interest. Speculation in lots has been regulated by the 
ipse dixit of the Elyton Land Company. No one operator, -or scores of 
operators, or syndicates of operators can survive a policy contrary to that 
of the company. With moderation and steadiness the company pursues 
its way. All others follow in the trail. They cannot find room to pass 
by, either to the right or to the left. There is no halt or balk in the 
company's progress; no crushing of the weak, only a gentle setting out of 
the way of the tardy and the skeptical. 

Through the influence of the company there has been no suspension 
or apprehension of delay in values in Birmingham since the company paid 
its first dividend. Its object has been fixedly, comprehensively, and 
enthusiastically adhered to. Individual capitalists who have come to 
build up industrial enterprises have been made safe by the immutable 
safety of the company. 

If, in a purely abstract and theoretical line of inquiry, the company 
should be required to respond to a com.parison of its periods of relative 
public utility, if it should be required to say that it will continue in like 
degree of influence in the future as in its past history, then it might only 
be bound to say that the city is growing rapidly stronger than the company, 
and the company's responsibility correspondingly reduced. The city is 
fast acquiring the control of all influences in and about itself The wants 
and the power of tens of thousands of self-incorporated people are no longer 
infantile. The child must soon let go the "apron strings " of the mother 
and begin to provide for her who so proudly fostered its growth ; other- 
wise the proverbial embarrassment of family rights and customs might be 
anticipated in this case. . 

The Elyton Land Company hoards no money, owns no transportation 
other than street railways, keeps no bank of discount, and yet contin- 
uously devotes all its energies toward the steady, well-matured, non- 
speculative growth of Birmingham, in numbers of people, numbers of 
industries, and intrinsic value of realty. 

It does not deny the manifest self-interest of its policy in all details. 
It does, nevertheless, claim, with experience as the interpreter of its 
methods, that it has given full measure for all that it has received. It has 



1 62 Jefferson County. 

received into its crucible a mass of untried and undetermined conditions, 
and it has formulated laws for their reduction to practical uses, to the 
betterment of general society, to the maintenance of law, the enrichment 
of individuals, the education of youth, the employment of labor, and the 
support of the cause of religion. Given, the novelty of the opportunities 
of the company, it has wrought out for itself a power, not less peculiar 
than comprehensive and catholic. Its opportunities stand upon the 
border line between a past civilization and a new civilization. The agen- 
cies it must use relate to the long concealed and yet incomparable land- 
locked mineral wealth of Alabama ; the erection of a great city, with 
banks for money, storehouses for supplies, mills to grind grain, mills to 
manufacture goods, a long line of investments to employ all degrees and 
conditions of men, women, and children. This artificial creation, a mod- 
ern city, is the key to unlock the wealth of the mines of coal and iron 
surrounding. The Elyton Land Company has opened the door to Red 
Mountain and Pratt Mines. 

To build the city has been the work of the company. It is coinci- 
dent of a most remarkable character that the opportunities of nature 
found so apt a channel for development. The short sketches of the work of 
the individuals who shaped the policy of the company following, trace its 
origin and progress in Southern-born energy and comprehensiveness of 
plan. 

JOSIAH MORRIS, 

THE FOUNDER OF THE EI.YTON L.AND COMP.ANY. 

This, the first published narrative of Mr. Josiah Morris' active life, 
finds him a strikingly handsome gentleman ; nervous, yet always suave and 
graceful in manner ; scrupulously well dressed after the fashion of a busi- 
ness man, and with small outward evidence that the weight of sixty-eight 
years is given him to bear. His figure is yet erect, his step elastic, and 
countenance alive to every passing interest. 

The parents of Josiah Morris were Jeptha and Eliza A. Morris, nee 
White, both natives of Maryland. On the eastern shore of that State, so 
famous for its aristocratic traditions, Josiah Morris was born in i8i8. 

The youth was preparing for college in his native State when an 
unanticipated change of circum.stances brought him to the far South. First 
he came to Columbus, Ga. , and entered the employment of a mercantile 
house, then a lad of fifteen years. Arriving at the duties of manhood he 



Initial Infliienccs. r6^ 

engaged in merchandising and the cotton trade, as was then the custom in 
the interior towns of the Cotton States. 

After nineteen years of residence and business occupation in Colum- 
bus, Mr. Morris, in his thirty-fourth year, the year 1852, went to New 
Orleans to enter the greatest cotton trade of the Union. There he fol- 
lowed his chosen course with distinguished success for four years. 

In 1856 Mr. Morris came to Montgomery, Ala., to devote his whole 
attention to private banking. His conservative course has never varied to 
admit any kind of speculation. The bankers of Montgomery advance 
large sums to cotton planters to make their crops in spring and summer, 
and large sums to cotton brokers to move the cotton bales stored in the 
warehouses of the city in the fall and winter. The number of bales stored 
is about 120,000 annually. The value of the crop of each year is about 
S6, 000, 000. The banks of the city handle most of this, and a sum equally 
great, representing the trade of the merchants in farm supplies with the 
cotton planters only. Of this feature of business, besides others incident 
to a prosperous town, Mr. Morris' bank has handled its full share. 

Mr. Morris was married, in his twenty-sixth year, to Miss Elizabeth 
Harvey, a native of Georgia. The fruit of this happy marriage is one 
daughter, herself married to a distinguished young physician of her native 
city, Montgomery — Dr. B. J. Baldwin — he being a nephew of one of the 
most widely known physicians of the South, Dr. William O. Baldwin, of 
Montgomery. 

The family of Mr. Morris are active members of St. John's Protestant 
Episcopal Church. They live without ostentation, but in style of home 
life becoming to the large fortune he has accumulated. 

Mr. Morris was the organizer of the Elyton Land Company. His 
perfect acquaintance with the agricultural conditions, before and after the 
revolution of i860, in the magnificent agricultural country for which 
Montgomery has been the distributing center, taught him to appreciate 
fully the new and timely opportunity, opened to capitalists by the railroads 
about to cross each other in Jones Valley, for founding an iron manufac- 
turing city at the crossing. 

At the suggestion of John T. Milner, Chief Enginer and General 
Manager of one of those roads, the South & North, Mr. Morris came 
forward and took up the options placed by J. C. Stanton, Superintend- 
ent of the other road, the Alabama & Chattanooga, before known as 
the North-East & South-West, when it became known that Mr. Stanton's 
financial inability had disappointed his own expectations, leaving him 
unequal to close his land trades. 
10 



164 Jefferso7i Coimty. 

Mr. Morris came forward on the assurance of Mr. Milner that the 
roads would cross at the only available spot, some two miles north-east of 
Jefferson County courthouse at Elyton, and paid for 4,150 acres about 
^100,000. This done he gave the city of the future its name, and, as we 
have said, organized the Elyton Land Company ; sold to the company the 
majority of the stock, represented by the land he had bought, and lifted 
the company along over rough paths for years by his personal aid, never 
doubting the end. 

Josiah Morris & Co., bankers, and Josiah Morris individually now own 
520 of the 2,000 shares of the company's stock. The div'idends accrued 
to the 520 shares amount, probably, to §500,000 to date. The estimated 
value of the company's assets Mr. Morris believes to be $15,000,000. 

Besides his large interest in the Elyton Land Company's stock Mr. 
Morris owns valuable real estate in the city, which he is about to improve 
in the best manner. 

Mr. Morris displayed wisdom, sagacity, and courage of the highest 
order when, alone, and surrounded by the doubt and dismay of the times, 
he came forward in 1866-67 to pledge his faith in the future of the city to 
be founded. He probably built wiser than he wot of, for to the success of 
his venture the entire State of Alabama owes an ' industrial revival 
unsurpassed in the Union. The incalculable wealth in iron matured 
and ere now reposing in invincible supremacy in Pennsylvania is menaced, 
and has learned to turn with anxious inquiry to the growth of the enter- 
prise Josiah Morris was among the earliest to lift up in the neglected 
forests of Alabama. 

The bank of Josiah Morris & Co. has been of essential aid to the 
State of Alabama in its efforts to rectify great financial errors of manage- 
ment in the period of revolution from 1866 to 1876. 

In association with others he has secured for Montgomery the loca- 
tion of the State Agricultural and Horticultural Fair, by donating to the 
Association which manages it the splendid grounds, some forty acres, 
necessary for the buildings and race tracks. 



Initial In/ltiences. 165 



JAMES R. POWELL, 

"duke of BIRMINGHAM." 

The year 18 18, before Alabama had been admitted into the Union, a 
tall, fair-skin youth, yet in his teens, rode out, a solitary horseman, from his 
native county in Virginia into the interior of the wilderness of the Ala- 
bama territory. This was the beginning of a long life of adventure and 
•enterprise spent in Alabama by James R. Powell. He was a man of most 
varied talents and most indomitable energy. He literally sat by the cradle 
■of one civilization in his adopted home ; saw it flourish like a green bay 
tree; saw the forest fall in every county with astonishing rapidity, and the 
fertile new-cleared fields spring up in wealth ; saw the rivers float the most 
magnificent steamers, laden with the riches of the earth and the chivalry and 
culture of a matchless society ; saw all this mature and fructify and decay, 
and he followed it literally to the grave. Turning like a hero from the 
dead past, James R. Powell, in even rank with the foremost, and with 
.brighter vision and fiercer resolve than the multitude, led the way of 
Alabama into the resurrection morn of her destiny. 

Young Powell stopped first, on his ride into Alabama, at the little 
hamlet, on the hills above the Alabama River, called Montgomery. His 
faithful horse and less than ?20 in cash were all the available assets at his 
command. He pursued his course from Montgomery into Lowndes, an 
adjoining county. Soon he sold his horse and found occupation, perhaps 
not regular or very remunerative. He became a contractor to carry the 
horse mails. Later on he became a contractor to carry the mails by 
passenger stage coach. He became, as was the law of prosperity in those 
days, inevitably a cotton planter and a member of the legislature. His 
passenger and mail-coach line so prospered that it reached a position of 
serious competition with the line run by Robert Jemison, Esq., of Tus- 
caloosa. Mr. Jemison was a gentleman of great wealth, industry, enter- 
prise, and intelligence. The brave Powell met h>n on his own ground 
and joined a relentless contest with him. Finally, after both had been 
■depleted in this mad rivalry, they came to terms of union. The organization 
became known as the stage line of Jemison, Powell, Ficklen & Co. It 
traversed Alabama from border to border at every point of the compass. 

Colonel Powell did not raise a regiment and enter the field when the 
war opened, as may have been expected of so earnest a worker ; nor did he 
-become a soldier at any time during its progress. He^remained at Mont- 



1 66 Jefferson County. 

gomery an active supporter of the military establishment of the Confederacy 
in various practical ways. Gifted with rare powers of persuasion, he 
exercised a marked influence in society, and directed this influence 
in behalf of the Confederate cause. Some examples of this activity may 
indicate the character of the man. When the great orator, William L. 
Yancey, the acknowledged representative of the Southern zeal and motive, 
returned from an unsuccessful mission to England in behalf of his Govern- 
ment, Colonel Powell, knowing Mr. Yancey personally, and appreciating 
his proud spirit and the personal distress which the rebuff his mission 
had encountered across the seas had visited upon him, invited several 
fellow-townsmen to unite with him in presenting the great statesman a 
splendid horse, handsomely accoutred, for the promotion of his health and 
amusement in his favorite exercise of riding. Mr. Yancey wrote a 
beautiful and eloquent expression of his gratitude to his neighbors and 
friends. The first name on the list of donors was James R. Powell. 
Slander is many tongued and exhaustless in resources, hence this act of 
private and neighborly esteem for a public servant was industriously 
poisoned to the public ear. It was promptly announced by partisan foes 
of the statesman that the citizens of his city of abode had sent around to 
his residence, before breakfast, a fully-equipped war horse, with a sug- 
gestion that he should take the field to combat for his principles ! Mr. 
Yancey had been unanimously elected by the Alabama Legislature to 
the Confederate Senate. He had sent three sons, only one of the 
number being a man, into the Confederate army. 

Another characteristic incident of Colonel Powell's services to the 
Confederacy may be noted with propriety. When, in the winter of 1863, 
the Alabama River was found sheeted with ice, a phenomenon of so rare 
occurrence that few, if any, of the citizens had ever before witnessed it. 
Colonel Powell promptly bent every available resource at his command to 
harvest the priceless crop. The ports of the Confederacy were effectually 
closed to importations of the article and artificial ice was then unknown. 
When the wind veered around and the accustomed climate of the latitude 
began to melt the coating over the river, so successful had Colonel Powell's 
ice harvest appeared that he was offered $40,000 for it. He refused to 
entertain any proposition of sale, but presented the whole supply to the 
Confederate Army Hospital Department, for use in Georgia and Alabama 
hospitals for soldiers. 

During the war Colonel Powell purchased a large area of cotton lands 
on the Yazoo River, Mississippi. Immediately after hostilities ceased he 
began to hire labor to cultivate these lands. He made a contract with a 



Initial Influences. 167 

young gentleman of great enterprise, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, 
grandson of the famous statesman, to operate these rich cotton planta- 
tions. 

The scheme attracted wide attention and created no small adverse 
comment in some parts of the older Cotton States. Mr. Calhoun appointed 
agents to collect select negro laborers in several parts of South Carolina 
and in Alabama. The planters were very much in earnest in their efforts 
to make cotton at fifty cents per pound. Soon Colonel Powell's example 
excited many other similar efforts. The Lower Mississippi Valley drew 
to it thousands of the best trained labor of the older plantations 
which could not be replaced. This loss was keenly felt by the planters 
who lost the labor, much of which had been born and bred on their lands, 
and which they had believed to be as fixed as the land itself in their ser- 
vice. No increase of wages or increase of shares in the crops to be grown 
could avail to stop the exodus until those who had gone out first began to 
return with information of the hard work, sickly climate, and strange 
experiences they had encountered as emigrants. 

The enterprise of Colonel Powell in colonizing his lands on the Yazoo 
River was in the line of that leadership which ever distinguished the man. 
The step was well adapted to the prevailing conditions. Its execution 
touched harshly upon the sensibilities of the planters who had never been 
before compelled to enter the market to compete for the privilege of hiring 
" hands." But Colonel Powell had the sagacity to realize first in his class 
a legitimate opportunity which all land owners must seek in course of brief 
time ; that is, that under the new era labor must be free to hire itself. 

Colonel Powell came to Birmingham soon after the railroad crossing 
had been fixed which was to determine the site of the town. On the 
organization of the Elyton Land Company he became its first president. 

There was much work to be done through the influence of this corpo- 
ration, which was of a widely different character from the work now falling 
to it. To found a city, in the wilderness of a State fresh from the devasta- 
tions visited upon it by the Federal Government, and which was, at the very 
period of Colonel Powell's accession to the presidency of the new corpora- 
tion, governed most disastrously by aliens and negroes, was his task. The 
founder must himself receive the " pardon " of his Government to become 
a citizen of the town of his own building. The city to be built must depend 
upon lines of transportation, then so feeble that, as to one, the Alabama & 
Chattanooga, it was shackled by law suits, and no regular trains or regular 
traffic existed over the line. The South & North had not been completed, 
and its completion was either doubtful or certain of delays and difficulties. 



1 68 Jefferso7i County. 

Even so late as 1875, five years after the organization of the Elyton Land 
Company and the initiation of its efforts to build the city of Birmingham, 
the people of Alabama, upon meeting in convention to deliberate and 
frame a new constitution for the State, sent one forth to be ratified, and 
which was ratified by a very great majority of the popular vote, which 
actually omitted all provision for the proper government of a new city. 
No general impression had, as late as 1875, taken possession of the popular 
mind in Alabama that the venture of the Elyton Land Company would 
materialize into respectable proportions. The cities of Alabama and many 
of the counties, and the State in the aggregate, had been enormously 
oppressed by debts voted upon the taxpayers by the non-taxpayers. The 
new constitution was framed in the interest of reform in the taxing feature 
of government. Thus cities were prohibited, by one of its provisions, from 
laying a heavier tax for municipal purposes than one-quarter of i per cent, 
of the assessed value of their property. The assessed value of Birmingham 
property was so low that, under this limitation, it was seen to be imprac- 
ticable that the city should perform many municipal acts necessary to its 
growth and efficient self-government. 

These obstructive conditions were fully known to the president of the 
Elyton Land Company. They did not for an instant damp his ardor or 
slacken his persistency. The iron ores, analyzed, were found to be near 
by in unexampled profusion. The coal seams had been tested and 
proven. The great agricultural regions to the North and the South 
were distant less than a half day's journey by rail. The forests all around 
Red Mountain were rich in timber. The lime quarries had long turned 
out the best product in their line. The stone for building, the clay for the 
brick kiln, were in sight. The immeasurable wealth of the marble fields of 
the adjoining counties of Bibb and Talladega was known and duly treas- 
ured in the general estimate. 

Colonel Powell's nature rose to the exigencies of the occasion. He 
carried no morbid sentiment into this, his supreme opportunity. He saw 
plainly into the political future and reasoned deeper than the accidents of 
the situation in Alabama. Revolutions in government must need make 
changes in the habits of the people. The South had been happy under 
industrial and social conditions, which had passed away forever. Must 
that great change forever debar the South from recuperation? Colonel 
Powell answered this fearful inquiry in the negative, and his tones took 
volume from the emotions of his heart and from the vigor of his intellect : 
' ' Ye;s, we may pass over in sorrow and in silence the depths of the dark- 
ness that is in man if we rejoice in the purer visions he has attained to. "■ 



Initial Lifluences. 169 

Unconscious of his own powers, however, yet in obedience to an enthu- 
siasm which underlies heroism in all forms, Colonel Powell worked steadily 
to the light he saw ahead, and wavered not a moment in his confidence. 

Colonel Powell became President, as we have said, of the Elyton Land 
Company at its organization, and held the office until 1875, when Dr. 
Caldwell was elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation. 
Under his administration the water works were built, which now (1887) 
are sufficient for 40,000 population. The completion of the works gave 
character to the city. It proved the faith of the company in its venture. 
It was not possible, indeed, to attract capital without them. The hercu- 
lean task was appreciated by the president of the company before he 
resolved to undertake the construction of them, but he entered upon the 
responsibility, as he had entered upon all others in his previous eventful 
career, after earnest deliberation and with the courage of his convictions. 
We have shown that upon the completion of the water works the com- 
pany was wholly without funds to meet its bonds issued as collateral on 
the loan received to pay for them. The course of Colonel Powell in this 
emergency had its due influence upon the continued Hfe of the company. 

After the untimely death of the first mayor, R. H. Henley, Colonel 
Powell was elected to succeed him. There were four competitors for the 
mayoralty at the election which chose him, and he received a small 
majority over the combined vote of the other three. He still retained 
his presidency of the land company. Under his direction only, when 
president of the land company, Major Barker, an accomplished engi- 
neer, laid off the streets, avenues, and alleys of the city. Under his 
advice the land company made donations to the public of the streets, 
avenues, and alleys ; to the city the parks ; to the railroads the wide 
reservation bisecting the city from east to west ; to the churches the lots 
on which to build houses of worship. His was the directing mind, shap- 
ing the policy on the widest, most liberal, and politic ground. He gave 
his salary as mayor to the public schools. He invited capital and labor 
to come here and locate. He advertised the iron and coal resources of 
the surrounding country in every part of the United States and in Europe. 
His enthusiastic zeal knew no bounds, and so influential had become his 
position that he was generally known in Alabama by the sobriquet, 
" Duke of Birmingham." 

One of the most sagacious strokes of policy adopted by Colonel 
Powell, in his ceaseless efforts to publish to the world the fact that the 
Elyton Land Company had enlisted in the enterprise of building a city at 
the base of Red Mountain, occurred in his successful connection with the 



1 70 Jefferson Coicnty. 

Alabama Press Association. He invited the association to meet at Bir- 
mingham at its annual spring convention of 1873. At this meeting he 
was elected an honorary member. Admitted to the floor, he made a 
motion that the convention select Birmingham as the place for holding the 
next succeeding convention. The motion was stoutly opposed, but pre- 
vailed. Colonel Powell then proposed that the New York State Press 
Association, which would convene in annual session about the time of the 
meeting of the Alabama Association, should be invited here. This was 
a bold proposition and fell like a bomb into the meeting. The New York 
press had by a large majority supported the Grant Administrations in de- 
posing the Southern State governments, and had approved of the latest 
suppression of a democratic legislature in the capitol of Alabama. 
Amid no small excitement this motion prevailed also, and the invitation 
was sent forward. 

In the spring of 1874, the year following Black Friday and the 
cholera visitation to Birmingham, the meeting of the two associations 
occurred as had been agreed upon. Colonel Powell placed before the 
joint bodies all the information at his command favorable to the prospects 
of the new city, then appearing, for causes we have mentioned, in its most 
unpromising aspect. He showed the guests the ore deposits, the coal 
seams, and the authentic analysis of both ores and coal. The vast 
deposits and the seams could be readily seen with the naked eye, and 
their value understood. At once the press of New York, metropolitan 
and provincial, was ablaze with accounts, written direct from Birmingham, 
revealing the marvelous discoveries the letter-writers had made. Their 
reports were republished throughout the Union and in Europe. It was 
after reading these that Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, exclaimed: 
" The fact is plain. Alabama is to be the iron manufacturing center of 
the habitable globe." 

During the ravages of the cholera in the summer of 1873 Colonel 
Powell remained at his post, nursed the sick, and maintained order. The 
citizens presented him, as a testimonial of their esteem, a beautiful pocket 
knife of many blades, manufactured in England to their order, and at a 
cost of $130. 

In 1874 Colonel Powell retired from Birmingham to his cotton plan- 
tations on the Yazoo. He yet owned large and valuable real estate 
in Montgomery. 

In 1S78 he was invited to return to Birmingham to canvass for re-elec- 
tion to the mayoralty. The solicitation was granted. After a campaign 
of much acrimony and activity he was defeated by a workingman. The 




>6 k ^ 



Initial hifluenccs. 171 



defeat was bitterly resented by Colonel Powell. He made immediate 
arrangements to contest the election, but his contest was fruitless. He 
had aged, and misfortunes had thrown him out of the current of influence. 
The very forces he had been so influential in introducing had become too 
strong to be controlled by him. 

Returning to his plantations on the Yazoo, he met death from a pistol 
shot at the hands of a beardless youth in a neighboring tavern in the fall 
of 1SS3. 

Colonel Powell had ever been a temperate man in his habits. Great 
energy, strong will, clear judgment of men and affairs, ready resources, 
and a kindly heart were the features of character which distinguished him. 
* In his later years his temper had become more imperious than the 
new elements of society which had overcome the South would well tol- 
erate. When he ran for mayor last in Birmingham he brought less con- 
ciliation and sympathy to bear than an apparent assertion of authority 
and right to demand the office. 

The youth, who fired the shot which ended his life, slayed a gray- 
haired man who could not moderate a sense of injustice offered to his 
superior rights on the occasion. 



HENRY MARTIN CALDWELL, 

PRESIDENT ELYTON LAND COMPANY. 

We have seen that the Elyton Land Company, having established a 
domicil, in the fields and forests, comprising several thousand acres of 
Jones Valley, proceeded to mark off lots along the streets and avenues 
of the promised city. Extraordinary invitation could alone be relied 
upon to bring immigrants to build upon the lots, and there to wait for 
successive evidences of the correctness of the judgment of the company 
which had brought them here. The Elyton Land Company had neces- 
sarily to be as wise as the serpent and as harmless as the dove in its policy 
of building up a city in the wilderness, a hundred miles from any other 
organized settlement of five thousand people. It is true Red Mountain, 
the coal fields and lime beds flanking it on either side for a hundred miles 
of its length, lay in sight of the crossing of two trunk lines of railroad ; and 
at the crossing it was proposed to build an iron manufacturing city. But 
the State of Alabama, and every other State of the Union closely allied 
with her in industrial and political sj-mpathies, had been latel}' denuded 



172 Jefferson Coimty. 

of nine-tenths of its capital and was practically without credit. Whence 
would come the capital, whence the confidence equal to investment in a 
new enterprise requiring management in which our people were wholly 
unskilled ? Granted, that iron ores and the basic materials necessarj- for their 
manufacture were here, whence would come the skilled labor to handle 
them? Should these difficulties be overcome, what political influences 
would be directed toward them ? Our State Government had well nigh 
been bankrupted in the same years that the Elyton Land Company had 
been organized. Thieves and aliens, ignorant knaves and knavish experts in 
legislation, had seized the government at Montgomery, and in almost every 
county, and had runup a State debt from $5,000,000 to S33, 000,000, besides 
county and city indebtedness of unknown and incalculable dimensions. 
Should there be no hidden fate, to consume the bud of promise for the 
plans of the company in these things, and should good iron be made here, 
would hostile Federal legislation be encountered by it, or hostile transpor- 
tation regulations impair its natural rights and powers of competition? 
Were these idle questions ? Does not even now a wide-spread misappre- 
hension prevail in distant States that the success of our furnacemen is 
largely founded on abnormally cheap labor, and that the price of labor in 
Alabama is a National political question? It is not to be denied that the 
promoters of the effort to found a city, in sight of the most wonderful iron 
deposits and coke-making coal seams in the United States, were resting 
under serious menace from various extraneous public influences, so late 
as ten years ago. 

The city of Birmingham has now passed the crucial test of its right 
to a foundation and a history. But it had not always been sunshine with 
it. There have been days of doubt when the result was hidden in the 
clouds, and when the bravest so understood it. 

The project of the Elyton Land Company, if executed, evidently 
required men of rare qualifications to direct it. There was not alone the 
task of building a city in the wilderness before the company, but the fur- 
ther task of encouraging the growth of a new line of industry in the face 
of great prejudices, some at home and others abroad. 

Dr. Henry Martin Caldwell became second in o'rder of the Presidents 
of the Elyton Land Company in the year 1875. Mr. Josiah Morris- 
influence originally led to his selection, and the affairs of the company 
have been entirely committed to his administration. When Dr. Caldwell 
took the office it was without salary virtually. He has been annually 
reelected, and his salary has been increased on several different occasions 
without demand from him. Had he received from the company the usual 



hiitial Influences. 173 

commissions charged by real estate agencies, on the sales made by him for 
the company in the months of August or October, 1886, he would have 
pocketed the moderate fortune of ^50,000 or better for each month. Dr. 
Caldwell sells, in person, all the lots offered by the company, and selects 
the lots to be offered. He lays the plans, which the General Manager^ 
Major Milner, carries forward to completion with such unvarying success. 

Dr. Caldwell was born in the village of Greenville, Butler County, 
Alabama, in 1836. He grew up there, received a good education, and in his 
twenty-first year graduated in medicine at the celebrated University of 
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Following the profession at home, after 
the usual routine of a young country doctor, in a prosperous community 
where slavery prevailed, he was fully imbued with the politics which 
matured into the formation of the Confederacy. He entered the medical 
department of the army, and until the end of the war served partly in the 
field with the Thirty-third Alabama Infantry, and partly at various posts. 

Dr. Caldwell is undoubtedly in a position of the highest commanding 
influence in Alabama. He determines to a greater degree than any one 
man in the State what shall be the influence of Birmingham. He controls 
the market prices of 4,000 acres of land in and near the city. The cease- 
less activity of the selling market, and the uninterrupted policy of the 
company in holding the market open to purchasers, is sufficient assertion< 
of the liberality and wisdom of its course. 

Dr. Caldwell is thoroughly in earnest in his attachment to Bir- 
mingham. He is a large individual property holder in the city and its 
suburbs. He is President of the Caldwell Hotel Company, now engaged 
in erecting a first-class hotel. In order to provide the most eligible site 
for this beautiful structure he subscribed to its stock the lot on which his 
handsome private residence then stood, besides making the largest indi- 
vidual cash subscription to the project. He is a projector of the Belt 
Railroad and of various private enterprises. He is also a director of the 
First National Bank of Birmingham, of the Williamson Iron Company, 
and of the Birmingham Iron Works. 

Dr. Caldwell married in early life, and has established two sons in 
active business in Birmingham. He is too busy to accept public office, 
but possesses qualifications, in fluency of speech and breadth of view, to- 
become a political force should ambition in that line tempt him. 

We have so minutely given the history of the Elyton Land Company 
in the years of Dr. Caldwell's administration of its affairs, and his career 
is so comprehended in that history, that, without unprofitable ratiocina- 
tion, we need only to remark on the inseparable alliance of the two themes. 



1 74 Jefferson County. 

Dr. Caldwell lives in a central position in the city of the Elyton Land 
Company, in the easy style of a Southern gentleman of means and educa- 
tion. He walks to his office after early breakfast and labors faithfully all 
day. His manners are unostentatious, as those of a well-bred and self- 
respecting gentleman, and he may be seen overlooking the smallest details 
of a large and varied business, within and without doors, at any hour of 
daylight. His example of temperance, energy, prudence, and fidelity is 
a good one to younger men, and to all men who come to Birmingham to 
labor and to wait. 

Mrs. Dr. Caldwell is a sister of the Secretary and Treasurer of the 
Elyton Land Company, Major Milner. 

Mr. John T. Milner, the most distinguished civil engineer of Ala- 
bama, and who was Chief Engineer of the South & North Railroad, mar- 
ried Dr. Caldwell's sister. Circuit Judge John K. Henry married another 
sister, and Samuel B. Otts a third. 

John C. Caldwell, the father of Dr. Caldwell, was a native of North 
Carolina, and Elizabeth Black, his wife, and the mother of Dr. Caldwell, 
was a native of South Carolina. Early in the settlement of Alabama by 
whites. John C, the father, came with his young wife to live in Greenville. 
There his children were born ; there fortune attended him as merchant 
and cotton planter. In 1870 he died, and in the year following the com- 
panion, who had come to share with him the lot of immigrants into the 
Indian wilds followed him to the last resting place. 

Dr. Caldwell is a member of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons. 
He and his wife are both members and active supporters of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Birmingham. To him was intrusted the duty of 
procuring the plans from the architect for the large and costly church now- 
being built by that congregation. 



WILLIS J. MILNER, 

THE GENERAL M.ANAGER OF THE ELYTON LAND COMPANY. 

The execution of a policy laid out b}- a great corporation, whose plans 
are never beneath its ability to conceive and support, must always fall upon 
one responsible head. Wisdom in council consists not alone in devising 
schemes and voting the means, but also in finding the single executor for 
their practical inauguration and continued prosperity in operation. Execu- 
tive tact, which is courageous enough to accept an original outline from 



Initial hifliiences. 177 

the projector of its plans, and honest enough to make them its own, is the 
indispensable element of corporate strength. It is the motive power which 
determines all questions of utility of agents and economy of means. It 
is the helm to direct the course of the ship which other hands have built 
and laden with resources. 

Among the first steps toward organization made by the Elyton Land 
Company was the appointment of the subject of this sketch to be its 
Secretary and Treasurer. He has held that office continuously since, and 
is now its General Manager. The history of the company is a material 
part of the biography of the Secretary and Treasurer. 

Major Milner is a native of Pike County, Georgia, where he was born 
May 3, 1842, of Georgia-born parents. He is the youngest of six chil- 
dren born to Willis J. and Mary A. Milner, nee Turner. Subsequently 
the father and mother moved to Greenville, Butler County, one of the 
lower tier of counties of Alabama, where first the father died in 1864, the 
mother following, in Birmingham, in 1879. 

The father had led a life of enterprise. In Georgia he had been a 
railroad contractor and gold miner. The son had been placed at Mercer 
University, Georgia, and had entered into the course of the junior class 
when the enthusiasm of the revolution of 1861 swept over the South with 
resistless and matchess fervor. The college walls were deserted as if by 
some inspired call from without. Young Milner, like the best students 
in all Southern colleges, abandoned his studies for the field. His military 
record began as first lieutenant of a company stationed in Escambia 
County, Florida. There was no apparent opportunity open to this part of 
the army for active service, and the college student had gone in for war on 
a principle. War meant to him the battles which would bring quick and 
certain results. To gratify his purpose he must escape from Escambia 
County. Thus resolved, he resigned his commission and repaired to 
Pensacola, enlisted as a private in the Clinch Rifles, a company of the 5th 
Georgia infantry then stationed there. There was room in this zeal for 
the office of future general manager of the most famous and influential 
corporation of the whole reconstructed Confederacy. 

After two years of the duty of private soldier in the field, marching 
and fightkig on corn cakes, or roasting-ears, or rationless, as circumstances 
prevailed of a favorable or unfavorable turn in the army commissary, our 
subject was sent up to Company K., 33rd Alabama Infantry, as first lieu- 
tenant commanding. A slight wound at Murfreesboro, and a more serious 
one at Chickamauga, prepared the way for promotion. Adjutant Moore, of 
the 33rd Alabama, fell at Chickamauga, and young Milner was appointed 



178 Jejferso7t County. 

to succeed him. His executive ability attracted attention, and he was again 
promoted to the staff of Lowery's brigade of Cleburne's division, the 
most famous in the army of Tennessee. Cleburne's division was thanked 
by resolution of the Confederate Congress for saving Bragg's army from 
annihilation at Missionary Ridge, an honor never conferred on any single 
division of an army at any time before or since. Cleburne fell in the 
bloodiest battle of the war at Franklin, Tennessee. 

Upon the consolidation of the i6th and 33rd Alabama regiments of 
infantry, Captain Milner was elected major of the new organization. At 
the time of the surrender of the Confederate armies he was in command 
of his regiment, because of the capture or fall of the colonel and lieuten- 
ant-colonel. 

Major Milner was paroled with the remnant of his command, and of 
the armies of the Confederacy, not to fight against the Union until duly 
exchanged. 

Along with the remnant of the hosts who had engaged to support 
a principle which had been overcome, he turned his attention to the 
restoration and rehabiliment of his despoiled country. Penniless he made 
his way to the home of his brother-in-law. Dr. Henry M. Caldwell, a 
paroled Confederate surgeon, who had saved something from the wreck 
prevailing. First as Dr. Caldwell's partner in a drugstore in Greenville, 
and subsequently in various other responsible positions, he continued in 
business in that town until his removal to Birmingham. 

In October, 1865, Major Milner was married to Miss Gustrine C. Key, 
only child of the late Dr. James F. Key, of Lowndes County. To this 
happy union the husband attributes whatever of success may have attended 
his efforts in fife. Though long an invalid and a great sufferer, Mrs. Mil- 
ner has been a true and faithful wife and ever a noble example of woman- 
hood. Her opinions are always sought, and her counsel and advice in 
matters of grave importance valued far above those of any other living 
mortal. Her judgment is rarely at fault and her intuitiv^e insight into 
character remarkable. 

In 1 87 1 Major Milner came to Birmingham as an employe of the 
South & North Alabama Railroad Company, but soon after was made 
secretary and treasurer of the Elyton Land Company, Colonel James R. 
Powell being then president. When Dr. Caldwell succeeded to the 
presidency of the Land Company Major Milner was retained in his office, 
■ and, in addition, was made superintendent of the water works. 

The business enterprise of Major Milner has by no means been lim- 
ited to the arduous duties assigned him by the Elyton Land Company, 



hiitial Influences. 1 79 

Some view of the compass of these duties may be reached by recurring 
to a few of them. The secretary and treasurer, being a practical civil 
engineer, built the original waterworks of the company, costing ,g 100, 000. 
The new water works of the company, involving the most elaborate par- 
ticulars of the system of supplying water from mountain springs, seven to 
ten miles distant, by means of reservoirs, aqueducts, filterers, pumps, and 
distributing channels, is entirely under his control. The street-railway 
system of the com.pany, covering many miles and including the manage- 
agement of Lakeview Park, is also under his control. 

Major Milner is in business on his own account, and very successfully 
engaged. He is owner of valuable real estate, improved and unimproved. 
He is the senior member of a firm of iron and brass manufacturers. 

One of the most important and interesting features of his enterprise 
is the Belt Railroad. This line, now being constructed, is a project of his. 
It is owned by a company, but is managed by him. Its name implies its 
object. It encircles the city, and will find employment in switching off 
loaded freight cars from trains entering the city from distant points, and 
unloading them at convenient points to consignees of their contents. 

Major and Mrs. Milner are communicants of the Church of the 
Advent (Protestant Episcopal), Birmingham. They are the parents of 
-one son and one daughter. 

At a recent meeting of the directory of the Elyton Land Company 
the salary of its secretary and treasurer was ordered doubled, and this in 
the middle of the year, for which the original amount had been fixed and 
accepted, and without any suggestion frcmi him. 

Major Milner is a Mason in high standing with his order. 



DANIEL SHIPMAN TROY, 

THE LEGAL ADVISOR OF THE ELYTON LAND COMPANY. 

Colonel Troy has lived an active and enterprising career, and fsw 
Southerners are more typical of the culture and manhood the section pro- 
motes than he. He is prompt, decided, and energetic in business, liberal 
in views, and generous to his opponents in action. He makes leisure a 
part of his right, and enjoys it for its own sake> Travel, society, polite 
literature, and domestic enjoyment are so interwoven with work, politics 
and religion as to round off the years with pleasure, both physical and 
intellectual. 



I So Jefferson County. 

A resident of the capital of the State, a hundred miles from the 
scenes we particularly describe, Colonel Troy has been, from a very early 
day in the rise and growth of Birmingham, an active and increasing 
factor. Hence here stands his name to represent his fair works. 

In the generation which lived next before the revolt of the American 
colonies the ancestors of Colonel Troy immigrated into Pennsylvania from 
Ireland. The grandfather had come down to North Carolina when the 
war broke out, and took his stand in the struggle of the patriots. In 
North Carolina Alexander was born, and there married Frances Shipman, 
and these were the parents of Daniel S., the youngest born of nine chil- 
dren. On October 9, 1832, Daniel was born in Columbus County, North 
Carolina. 

Alexander Troy was a leading lawyer of his native State, and an 
active politician on the Whig side of the issues of his day. He held the 
office of State Attorney for twenty-five years. It is related that the 
majority of voters called to pass upon his aspirations for public honors 
were Democrats, opposed to his own party on practical public questions ; 
nevertheless, so eminently satisfactory were Mr. Troy's services that both 
parties agreed to retain them by keeping him in the office. He had, in 
North Carolina, a political opponent, ]\Ir. Simmons. Subsequently Sim- 
mons came to Pike County, Alabama, and was sent to the legislature of 
this State. Zebulon was then the name of the county seat of Pike. 
Representative Simmons promptly made use of his influence in the legis- 
lature to change the name, and, to honor his old competitor and rival, 
chose Troy. The flourishing distributive point of the commerce of a 
large agricultural community now represents the transformation of the 
times, and boars with increasing fame the name of the father of Colonel 
Troy. 

The mother of Colonel Troy was of Welsh origin, and his maternal 
grandfather was also a participant on the side of the patriots of North 
Carolina in the Revolutionary war. The mother was a woman of marked 
courage and energy. Having been left a widow with a large family when 
Daniel was six years old, she managed to have all the children well edu- 
cated, chiefly at home. During an entire summer Daniel and a brother 
several years older went to school to each other at a country church near 
the family residence. Daniel learned the Greek alphabet so as to hear his 
elder brother recite his lessons in the Greek grammar, and took great 
pleasure in requiring this elder brother " to get the lesson over again " if 
he missed, well knowing that the mother at home would sustain either 
one in exacting a full performance of duty by the other. When Daniel 



Initial hifluences, 

was a mere lad of fifteen he was left alone with his mother in the 
management of the homestead plantation, and while conducting the farm 
successfully, under his mother's direction, he pursued his studies without 
any assistance whatever for two years, and during that time read most of 
the Latin classics, and acquired a taste for English literature and specu- 
lative philosophy which he has never lost. An extensive library of lit- 
erary, religious, and philosophical works shows the wide range of his 
intellectual recreations. His first appearance in an institution for the 
education of young men was at Spring Hill College, near Mobile, in July, 
1873. when, on the invitation of the faculty, he delivered an address to 
the graduating class on " Common Sense." 

Daniel S. Troy, in his eighteenth year, came to Cahaba, the old 
capital of Alabama, and then the county seat of Dallas, the richest county 
in the State. He began work as a clerk for his brother-in-law, William 
Hunter, a lawyer. There he continued his studies of general literature 
for a year longer, and then began the study of law. In his nineteenth 
year he was admitted to the bar in the lower courts, and at the age of 
twenty-two he was admitted to practice in the State Supreme Court. 

In Cahaba, in 1855, he married Miss Lucy, a daughter of one of the 
wealthy cotton planters of the State, Mr. Joel E. Mathews, and a lady of 
rare character and accomplishments. She lived only a few months after 
the marriage. In 1859 Colonel Troy was married to Florence L., 
daughter of Gov. Thomas H. Watts, of Montgomery, by whom he has 
an interesting family of children. 

In i860 Colonel Troy took up his abode in the city of Montgomery, 
and since then has been an active participant in public affairs, and has 
taken rank among the better class of lawyers. He owns an unpreten- 
tious, but beautiful and admirably arranged home in the resident part o f 
the city. He is a zealous Catholic. He was State Senator for eight 
years, and among his reform measures was the railroad supervision law. 
He was president of the Montgomery water works until its recent sale to 
a new company. A year ago he established a new daily newspaper in 
Montgomery, called the Dispatch, which has been conducted with marked 
indepencVsnce and ability. He is also president of the Alabama Fertil- 
izer Company, one of the most successful manufacturing enterprises of 
the capital city. He abates no zeal in his law practice, however, and is 
at the head'of one of the most successful legal firms in the State. 

In 1862 Colonel Troy was made captain of one of the companies of 
the Hilliard Legion, organized at Montgomery by the distinguished 
statesman, and occasional pulpit orator, Henry W. Hilliard. In the 
II 



1 82 Jeffersoti County. 

reorganization of a part of the Confederate army he was made Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of the Sixtieth Alabama Infantry. His campaigns, as 
lieutenant-colonel, began in East Tennessee and Kentucky. At the battle 
of Bean Station one-third of his regiment, on the field, were killed or 
wounded. 

Going into the Virginia campaign, under Longstreet, he was pain- 
fully wounded at the affair at Bermuda Hundreds. On March 25th, 
while in command of the Fifty-ninth Alabama, he was shot through one 
lung, and left on the field for dead. Having been removed to Lincoln 
Hospital, Washington City, he was well nursed and fully restored. 

Colonel Troy's connection with Birmingham and the mineral interests 
of Alabama has been, as we have said, highly influential. 

In 1868 he became interested in the present Eureka Furnace Com- 
pany, which operates two stacks at Oxmoor, six miles from the city of 
Birmingham, with a capital stock paid up of g 1,000, 000. It was orig- 
inally known as the " Red Mountain Iron & Coal Company." The com- 
pany was reorganized, by Colonel Troy, under a new charter, and, at his 
suggestion, the name of the place was changed to Oxmoor, in memory of 
his father's North Carolina residence which bore that name. 

Colonel Troy claims, with every apparent reason of propriet>', to 
have secured the first correct analysis of the iron ores of Red Mountain 
and the coal seams of the Cahaba district ever made. 

In 1873 he became attorney for the Elyton Land Company, no doubt 
owing the appointment, in part, to the influence of Mr. Josiah Morris, the 
largest stockholder, and. his fellow-townsman and friend. His legal 
advice has been of incalculable service to the company, and may be said 
to control largely its policy. He is a considerable stockholder, his stock 
being worth a very handsome fortune in itself. He has an orange grove 
and winter home on Lake Harris, in South Florida, where he spends, 
with his family, the coldest of the winter months. This place he has also 
named " Oxmoor," and nothing more beautiful can be found in the coun- 
try of oranges than the scene which greets the eye from the various 
piazzas of this broad one-story house. High rolling lands, a silver lake, 
islands, cypress, long moss, and the bright green orange trees and golden 
fruit in the foreground combine to make a picture lovely beyond the 
power of language to express. 



Initial Influences. 183 



THE BIRMINGHAM WATER WORKS. 

A NOBLE CON'CEPTION A MOUNTAIN LAKE AND PLEASURE RESORT. 

In November, 1872, the Elyton Land Company began the construc- 
tion of a system of water works more than adequate then for the wants 
of the infant city. These works were continued during 1873 and 
1874, small additions being made in the latter year. On the ist of 
January, 1875, the works consisted of one small Worthington steam 
pump, about four and a half miles of mains, and one service reservoir 
with a capacity of about one million gallons, the whole costing about 
|i6o,ooo. The history of these works since that date has been one of 
continual growth by means of extensions and alterations, until what 
remains of the original plant constitutes a very small proportion of the 
works existing at present. The source of supply remains the same, viz : 
Village Creek, two miles north of the city, though, as will be seen further 
along, new works are in process of construction looking to the abandon- 
ment of this source as a supply. The g6o,ooo invested in the water 
works at the time referred to came near bankrupting the Elyton Land 
■Company. To raise this sum the company had executed sundry notes, 
maturing at short intervals, hoping to realize from the sale of lots a 
sufficient amount to meet them. Failing in this, its anxious creditors 
sued upon the notes, obtained judgment, and levied upon the company's 
property. Its stock went down to seventeen cents on the dollar, and 
more than one of the stockholders became alarmed on account of the 
"personal liability" clause in the company's charter, which made each 
stockholder liable for the debts of the company equal to the amount of 
his stock. Even the desk of the secretary and the other office furniture 
were levied upon by these clamorous creditors, and the struggles of the 
company for existence during all this period of depression would make 
an interesting chapter in the Hght of succeeding events, but it is not 
pertinent to the present purpose. In 1879-80 large extensions of mains 
were made to reach the Alice furnace and the rolling mills. The conse- 
quent increased consumption called for a larger pump main to the reser- 
voir and an additional pump, which were added in 1881. The rapid 
growth of the city following, in 1882, called for still further pumping 
capacity, which was accordingly doubled by the purchase of another 
Blake engine, a duplicate of the one already in use. 



184 Jefferson County. 

In the same year a new reservoir was constructed and the old one 
enlarged, thereby trebling the capacity of the service reservoirs. 

In 1866 the pump main was again found to be insufficient to the 
demand upon it, as were also the supply mains in the city. The former 
was, therefore, replaced by a twenty-inch main, and the latter doubled 
by additions. 

In his annual report to the stockholders in January, 1881, the super- 
intendent of the water works again called attention to the necessity of 
looking for an additional supply of water, and was authorized to make 
some examinations to that end. These examinations being made, further 
authority was given in 1882 to purchase certain lands needed for the 
additional supply. The plans then outlined are now being put into 
execution. 

Five-Mile Creek heads in the mountains to the north-eastward of the 
pumping station, having its source in numerous crystal springs situated 
from eight to twelve miles from the city, and drains a water-shed of about 
twenty square miles. At the poin>t where this stream cuts through the 
ridge, known opposite the city by the various names of ' ' Reservoir 
Ridge," "Cemetery Ridge," and "Fountain Heights," numerous valleys 
converge to a common outlet. At this point, designed and prepared by 
nature, is to be constructed an artificial 

Mountain Take, 

in which to store the sparkling waters of those springs, and of the water- 
shed supplying them. This is done by the construction of a dam fifty-five 
feet high, and of an average length of six handred feet, across the valley 
at the point named. The lake thus formed will be nearly two miles ia 
length, covering an area of about two hundred and twenty-five acres, 
with a volume of fifteen hundred million gallons of pure water. The 
contour of the lake follows the meandering course of the valleys, broad 
here, there almost bisected by the closing-in spurs of the moimtains, an 
island uprisen now, yomder a peninsula, long and narrow, pointing out, 
and again a bayou deep into the slmdes of the overhanging cliffs. 

It does no violence to the imagination to picture upon this calm 
bosom gay gcfridolas and white-winged yachts, affording joyous relaxation 
to the thousands, who will doubtless throng its shore-e, transported up tke 
valley by dummy li»es of street railway rfinning into the heart of the 
city; or, passing over a macadamized public highway in pleas,ure carriages. 
From this reservoir the water will flow by gravity through a canal, with 



Initial Infliietices. 185 

an inclination of about one in twenty-five hundred, a distance of 
nearly six miles to the present pumping station, where it will be 
delivered into another reservoir containing several days' supply. The 
present pumping machinery will be utilized, as far as it may go, in elevating 
the water thence into the service reservoirs. Another house of ornate 
appearance artd ample capacity is to be built to receive another engine, 
already contracted for, to be delivered in May next. This engine is to 
be of the latest and most improved design, made by the Dean Steam 
Pump Works, of Holyoke, Mass., and is to be capable of delivering 
seven million gallons in twenty-four hours. The present reservoirs are to 
be enlarged, and another constructed on the Highlands. There will be 
also a high service pumping station and reservoir for a supply to the 
Highlands, so arranged as to give, within the city, the pressure due to the 
higher reservoir, in case of fire, simply by closing one valve and opening 
another. 

Major Willis J. Milner, the Secretarj^ and Treasurer of the El}ton 
Land Company, since its early days, and always serving it most intelli- 
gently and devotedly, is the projector of this admirable water-supply 
system. Under his personal superintendence it is being constructed. 
When completed it will be one of the most effective measures, for 
furnishing pure water to a city population, in the United States. 



J. W. SLOSS. 

In 1877 Colonel Sloss saw a man on the mountain side, some six 
miles north-west of Birmingham, digging a hole in the ground. His 
attention was arrested by the lumps of coal thrown out. From this 
unexpected and obscure beginning sprang the enterprise now known as 
the Pratt Mines, and which, in its full connections, carries an invested 
capital of some $4,000,000. It was Colonel Sloss who originated the 
scheme of opening the mines. 

Colonel Sloss is a native of Limestone County, Alabama, and is now 
in full tide of an influential and successful career. He has always lived 
in Alabama, and has been a leading factor in great enterprises. 

A few years before the revolution of 1860-61 Alabama had chartered 
the railroad we have spoken of as the Central Road ; also had chartered 
a road to run from some point on the Tennessee River in a northerly course 
to the line dividing this State from the State of Tennessee. The northern 
division of the road was run with one terminus at Decatur, crossinsr the 



1 86 Jefferson County. 

Memphis & Charleston Road at that place, and the other at the State 
line, in due course toward Nashville. This northern division had been 
completed just as the war opened. Colonel Sloss was president of the 
road. 

The division now known as the South & North Road was not com- 
pleted until after the war — not until 1872, the last spike being driven at 
Blount Springs. 

The State had granted aid to these roads from the 3 per cent, fund, 
and from the Government lands a grant of each alternate section had been 
made, aggregating about 500,000 acres. These grants, however, have 
been practically valueless. 

After the war, the two roads were placed under the presidency of 
Colonel Sloss, and are yet continued under him, as a part of the Louis- 
ville & Nashville system. 

Colonel Sloss has undoubtedly earned title to a most successful 
individual enterprise in originating and directing transportation, mining, 
and manufacturing interests in Alabama. He organized the Sloss Furnace 
Company, operating two large stacks in the suburbs of Birmingham, and 
owning forty-eight miles long of Red Mountain ore, 20,000 acres of brown 
hematite, 15,000 acres of coal lands, two extra fine large stone quarries, 
and valuable sand deposits. This matchless undeveloped property, with 
the stacks, has been recently sold to Birmingham, Richmond, and New 
York capitalists for $2,000,000. It probably did not cost the Sloss Fur- 
nace Company over $500,000, including the furnaces. 

His residence in Birmingham, though plain, is commodious and com- 
fortable, in sympathy with his unpretending habits, and surrounded by 
extensive grounds. Being a gentleman of culture and refinement, his 
services are demanded by society. He is an active member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church South, and Superintendent of a Sunday school. 
He was president, at one session, of the Alabama division of the Lake 
De Funiak Chautauqua Association. 

With the sale of the furnaces, established and managed by him, Col- 
onel Sloss has retired from active business. He assists in the inaugura- 
tion, nevertheless, of new enterprises intended to promote the growth of 
Birmingham. 



Initial Influe7ices. 187 



HENRY F. DeBARDELEBEN. 

Mr. DeBardeleben is a native of Autauga County, Alabama. There 
he married the only daughter of Daniel Pratt, a New Englander, who 
came to that county a young man and became the founder of large man- 
ufacturing industries, fifty years ago, whose influence has been felt in every 
part tf the South. 

lV;r. DeBardeleben has been a prime mover in the chief mining and 
iron manufacturing industries which, in the earher developments, gave 
fame to Jefferson County. 

Artong them are the Eureka and Alice and Mary Pratt Blast Fur- 
naces, tie Pratt Coal Mines and the Henry-Ellen Coal Mines. 

In tie year 1886 Mr. DeBardeleben organized a company to found 
the city (f Bessemer, some twelve miles south-west of Birmingham, on 
the Alabima Great Southern Railroad. Two blast furnaces of large 
capacity lave been built there, a large area for the site of the city has 
been purnased, and encouragement to iron manufactures offered. 

Mr. DeBardeleben has been, and is now, conspicuously a leader 
among thegreat enterprises originating in Jefferson County, and is prob- 
ably the lagest capitalist in the county. 

He bult for himself a beautiful three-story brick residence in the city, 
where, witl his family, he entertains much of the local society of the city 
and the vis:ors coming here. 



ROBERT H. HENLEY, 

FIRST MAYOR. 

The ppulation of Birmingham, when the city charter was granted, 
was not of hat patriotic class which the president and directory of the 
Elyton Lad Company, and others of the more "solid men," considered 
to be trustworthy to act the part of suffragists to determine the degree of 
law and orer proper to be preserved, or to be endowed with the right of 
selecting tk officers to direct city affairs. 

The Gvernor, therefore, by request of the more prominent people 
of the yang town, appointed Robert H. Henley, a young man of 
perhaps fenty-six years of age, and the son-in-law of Major Thomas 
Peters, to;he mayoralty. There was much disappointment among those 



1 88 



Jcffa 



Co7inf] 



who had planned to elect a mayor of a different type. The mayor, thus 
appointed, promptly assumed the office, and administered it with grea: 
vigor, good judgment, and decision. His conduct contributed much to 
enforce order in the interest of the fair name of the cit}-, and endeared 
him to the people. 

Mr. Henley resigned, on account of ill health, after one )-ear's ser\ice. 
He was a native of Demopolis, Marengo County, and his father, John W. 
Henley, was one of the most brilliant lawyers of one of the most wealthy 
circuits of the State. The mayor had edited in Elyton, and later in 
Birmingham, a weekly newspaper of marked ability and force, du'ing a 
trying political crisis in the State, called the Sun. 

Mr. Henley died in Savannah, Ga., where he had gone fcr rest. 
His remains were brought to Birmingham, and interred with distinjuished 
public honors in the city cemetery. He had said he wanted lo other 
epitaph on his tomb than " Here lies the First Mayor of Birminglam." 






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'B<Vm(';^^l^&m. 



Its City Government — Its Growth — Its Industrial, Social, and 
Religious Life. 

THE MEN WHO LIVE AND LABOR TO PROMOTE ITS FAME— 

THE RECORD OF THEIR WORK. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CiTV Government. 

Robert H. Henley, a young man of handsome person and courage- 
ous nature, a native of Demopolis, Marengo County, was appointed first 
Mayor of Birmingham by Governor R. B. Linusay. He went into 
office December 21, 1871, and to hold until first Monday in January, 
1873. His health failed and he resigned before the expiration of his 
term. 

The city officers under the Henley administration were: Mayor, R. 
H. Henley; Aldermen, James B. Francis, B. F. Roden, W. J. McDon- 
ald, A. Marre, J. B. Webb, John A. Milner, T. S. Woods. William 
Alexander, from Eutaw, was City Clerk ; James McConnell was Treasurer; 



IQO Jefferson County. 

O. D. Williams was Marshal, or Chief of Police, and the other police- 
men were Robert Bailey and H. Clay Atkins. 

The mayor himself volunteered his services as policeman should^ 
occasion require it in those crude times of organization. 

The Powell Administration. 

Colonel James R. Powell, the President of the Elyton Land Com- 
pany, was second in order of the mayors. He was elected, with con- 
siderable opposition, on the first Monday in January, 1873. 

The officers of this administration were : Mayor, James R. Powell ; 
Aldermen, J. B. Luckie, M. H. Jordan, W. H. Morris, B. F. Ro(5en, 
John A. Milner, James O'Connor, C. F. Enslen, and F. P. O'Brien. 
O'Brien soon resigned, and Charles Linn was put in his place. J. B. 
Francis was Treasurer. R. B. Ryan, E. K. Fulton, V. H. Milner, and 
E. V. Gregory successively held the city clerk's office. W. G. Oliver 
was Marshal, and E. G. Taylor, A. Robinson, and Robert Bailey were 
Policemen. There were for extra police service in 1873 W. L. Cantelou, 
Jule Wright, James Armstrong, William Harris, J. D. Lykes, M. 
Hagerty, William Clay, J. L. Ellison, W. W. Coxe, and John Coxe. 
There were a few changes in the police force of 1874. 

J. J. Jolly was made City Attorney in 1874. 

The Morris Administration 

came into office January 4, 1875. The officers were: Mayor, W. H. 
Morris; Aldermen, C. E. Slade, William Berney. W. A. Smith, J. R. 
Hochstadter, J. L. Lockwood, J. B, Fonville, W. P. Brewer, and A. C. 
Oxford. 

In this administration the ordinances of the town were codified by E. 
L. Clarkson, Esq. 

Second Morris Administration. 

The election was held December 4, 1876, the legislature having 
ordered the change of date. Mayor, W. H. Morris ; Aldermen, C. E. 
Slade, Wiliiam Berney, W. A. Smith, J. R. Hochstadter, J. L. Lock- 
wood, J. B. Fonville, W. P. Brewer, and A. C. Oxford. E. C. Mackey 
was City Treasurer; P. H. Carpenter, Clerk; E. G. Taylor, Marshal; 
Robert Bailey, O. F. Percy, B. A. Thompson, and Thomas W. Reaves, 
Policemen. 



Birmingham. 191 

Mayor Morris resigned in his second term, and Dr. H. M. Caldwell 
was elected by the Board of Aldermen to fill the unexpired term. 

A city code was prepared and published in the Morris administration, 
second term. 

The Jeffers Administration. 

Thomas Jeffers was elected Mayor December, 1878. He was fore- 
man of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Shops, and was opposed by 
Colonel James R. Powell, former Mayor and former President of the 
Elyton Land Company, the "Duke of Birmingham," as he had been 
known. 

The officers of the city government became at this time : Mayor, 
Thomas Jeffers ; Aldermen, B. F. Roden, M. H. Jordan, Frank Gazwell, 
F. D. Nabers, J. L. Lockwood, G. W. Allen, and W. A. Smith. J. P. 
Hutchinson was Treasurer ; P. H. Carpenter, Clerk ; B. Plosser, Marshal, 
William Seay and John B. Lewis, Policemen. L. M. Teal succeeded 
Plosser as Marshal. 

The Second Jeffers Administration. 

Mayor, Thomas Jeffers ; Aldermen, C. L. Hardman, T. G. Paine, B. 

A. Thompson, C. C. Truss, C. L. Wadsworth, J. L. Lockwood, F. D. 
Nabers, M. H. Jordan ; Treasurer, John L. Davis ; City Clerk, P. H. 
Carpenter; Marshal, George H. Pond. 

The Lane Administration. 

Alexander Oscar Lane was elected Mayor of Birmingham December 
5, 1882. With this event the city government marked a new era. The 
better government then secured has contributed in no small measure to 
the phenomenal growth of the town. The following excellent Board of 
Aldermen came in with Mr. Lane's administration : C. P. Williamson, 

B. F. Roden, A. S. Elliott, E. Ellis, T. L. Hudgins, James O'Connor, 
F. V. Evans, and John G. Sheldon. B. A. Thompson was made Treas- 
urer; W. A. Jones, Clerk; W. G. Oliver, Marshal; John G. Thompson, 
Captain of Police. G. W. Merritt, J. A. Brock, J. A. Mingea, W. S. 
Nelson, J. S. Barksdale, C. K. Dickey, G. J. Tomlin, and T. P. Hagood, 
were appointed Policemen ; James Fogarty was made City Sexton, and 
Dr. A. T. Henley City Physician. The policemen were required to 
wear the metropolitan uniform. A pesthouse was built. M. H. Maury 
was appointed City Engineer in 1883. 



192 Jefferson Comity. 



The Second Lane Administration. 

Mayor Lane was elected for a second term at the regular semi-annual 
election December, 1884. The Aldermen then elected were, J. R. 
Hochstadter, N. R. Rosser, William Berney, W. J. Rushton, James F. 
Smith, J. A. Going, Fred Sloss, and E. V. Gregory. 

B. A. Thompson became Treasurer, F. V. Evans, Clerk ; Dr. A. T. 
Henley was reappointed City Physician. Toward the middle of 1884, J. 
R. Carter was made City Engineer. F. H. GafTord was appointed Mar- 
shal ; Dr. H. J. Winn was made Health Officer; O. A. Pickard was ap- 
pointed Captain of Police ; J. H. Mingea, J. G. Smith, William Burwell, 
J. B. Donelson, H. U. McKinney, T. J. Boggan, A. H. Maynor, and 
James McGee were made Policemen. 

The second administration of Mayor Lane resulted in great good to 
the city. The cause of law and order was maintained with vigor and dis- 
cretion. The fire service was thoroughly organized. The public schools 
were put upon the highest and most efficient footing. Much improve- 
ment of the sidwalks and streets by paving and drainage was accomplished. 
The bonded debt of the city was maintained at a premium. 

The Third Lane Administration. 

The success of the preceding two administrations of Mayor Lane 
prevailed on the people to demand his reelection for a third term. De- 
cember, 1886, he came into office as his own successor. The Aldermen 
then elected were W. A. Walker, Jr., E. W. Linn, J. R. Hochstadter, 
D. M. Drennen, James O'Connor, R. W. Whilden, John Colley, and W. 
H. Eastman. 

F. V. Evans was reappointed Treasurer, H. U. McKinney was 
appointed Clerk, Dr. A. T. Henley was reappointed City Physician, O. 
A. Pickard was reappointed Marshal. 

The Policemen appointed were J. D. Anderson, Charles Martin, J. 
M. Nix, W. M. Turner, W. J. Carlisle, A. L. Sexton, R. M. Saunders, 
W. H. Pinkerton, T. Z. Hagood, Richard Smoot, Jr., James Turner, B. 
R. Childers, Thomas Hart, J. S. Oldham, O. M. Hill, R. H. McCullum, 
James Hillary. 

The mayor's report, rendered December i, 1886, shows the following 
financial comparison between the main items of expenditure for the years 
1882 and 1886. The statements relate to monthly expenditures: 



Birniingliani. 193 

In 1S82 the police pay roll was ^540; in 1886, ^970. In 1S82 the 
public school teachers' pay roll was $354 ; in 1886 it had gone over g 1,900. 
In 1882 the city water bill was $145 ; in 1886 it was $290. In 1882 the 
sanitary department pay roll was ^270; in 1886, :g400. In 1882 the fire 
department was wholly unpaid ; i'n 1886 it was paid $375. In 1882 there 
was no gas bill ; in 1886 this item was $140. 

Assets of City. 

Northside Market House and lots $35,000 

Southside Market House and lots 25,000 

Centi'al Park 48,000 

East Park 32,000 

West Park 32,000 

Powell School buildings and lots 12,000 

Henley School buildings and lots 10,000 

Paul Hayne School buildings and lots 25,000 

Lane Grammar School 12,500 

Fifteenth street School buildings and lots. . . . 2,500 

School furniture 5,000 

Fire engine and hose 6,000 

Fire plugs, gas lamps, etc 3, 800 

Live stock 1,200 

Total ^250,000 

City Liabilities. 

Northside 8 per cent. Market House bonds issued 

in 1882 $ 7,000 

First series 8 per cent, sanitary bonds, 1S82 . . 10,000 

Second series 8 per cent, sarrt-tary bonds, 1883 . 10,000 

Third series 8 per cent, sanitary bonds, 1884 . . 10,000 

Fourth series 8 per cent, sanitary bonds, 1885 . 30,000 

Seven per cent, school bonds issued 1885 . . . 20,000 

Southside 7 per cent. Market House bonds . . . 10,000 
Convert the floating debt, to be floated December 

I, 18S6, into bonds 60,000 

Total Liabilities $157,000 

The assets appear by Ais statement to be $C)l„QiOO in excess of the 
liabilities. 

Estimates of the probable income of the city from various special 
sources for 1887 show the following, with indications favoring an increase 
over amounts named : 



1 94 Jefferson Cotmty. 



Licenses $30,000 

Real estate tax 25,000 

Personal tax 2,800 

Special tax 1.500 

Merchants tax 2,500 

Tuition tax 6,000 

Poll tax 2,000 

Street tax 3.500 

Fines and forfeitures 6,000 

State school fund 1,500 

Miscellaneous 1,500 

Market House rents 4,000 

286, 300 
' To which add property tax 24,000 

Total $110,300 

Estimated Expenses for 1887. 

Police department $12,500 

Teachers, janitors, etc 22, 500 

Gas 2,000 

Water 4,000 

Prison expense 4,000 

Sanitary department 5,000 

Fire department 4,500 

Street department 6,000 

Salaries 8,000 

Interest account 11,660 

Miscellaneous 1,200 

$81,360 
Probable excess of income over expenditures for 

1887 28,940 

$110,300 
The following is a list of the floating debts, which 7 per cent, bonds 
-will be at once issued to retire: 

Mark L. Potter $10,000 00 

Alabama State Bank 23,500 00 

First National Bank 20,000 00 

Berney National Bank 3.500 00 

C. J. Knighton 1,200 00 

Towner, Landstreet & Co. (horse) 5 00 

Gutta Percha Rubber Company (engine) . . . 4,200 00 

W. T. Green & Co 3 00 

The rate of city taxation is 52i'< cents on the $100. 



BirmingJuxm. 195 



Streets, Drainage, Etc. 

The total number of acres is 1,160 included in the city limits. 
Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth streets are one hundred feet wide ; 
the remainder are eighty feet wide. First avenue and Avenue A are one 
hundred feet wide ; the remainder are eighty feet wide. All alleys bisect- 
ing every block are twenty feet wide. 

There are thirty-six miles of streets and avenues. The total length 
of the sanitary sewers is twelve miles. The sewerage is carried and dis- 
charged two and one-half miles below the city into Walker's Creek. 
About eight and one-half miles of the sewerage system was laid in i SS5-86, 
and four or five miles are projected for the year 1887. 

The city has expended thus far $60,000 for sewers, about two-thirds 
of which has gone into sanitary sewers and the remainder into storm sew- 
ers. Disposal of storm waters is yet untouched work. About three- 
fourths of a mile of brick sewer is completed. The laying of street 
branches is going on daily. 

The natural fall is too slight to be depended on for the congregation 
and removal of flood waters. The sewers must be carefully built to 
correct this fault, with the fall closely and sparingly guarded. Otherwise 
sewerage is not particularly expensive for work of this particular character. 
A large expenditure in this direction is designed for 1887. 

Fifteen thousand lineal feet of curbing was set in 1885-86. Twenty- 
five thousand feet will be set this year. 

Contracts have been made for the best grade of sidewalks, to meet 
the requirements of the business portion of the city. 

The labor force actually employed by the city is small. About eight 
wagons run to look after the unsewered part of the town, clearing streets, 
etc. The main force for grading is the convict gang. Their average is, 
say, twenty to thirty per day. The work of grading the streets will, prob- 
ably, be soon accomplished. The street railways are now required by the 
city to grade the streets over which they pass, from gutter to gutter. 

Extensive improvements in street paving are now being arranged for. 




JJsfic '^cw 13 91ticjfvticr Irriaii- the S)ivozl 



The Press. 



THE JONES VALLEY TIMES, 

a small weekly published at Elyton, the county seat, was the first 
newspaper established in Jefferson County, and appeared in 1845. It 
came into life with the event of the Polk administration, but only to make 
a support for the proprietor. In politics it was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. 
After two years of precarious life it died a natural death. 

In 1849 Dr. Joseph R. Smith and Baylis E. Grace, both now among 
the venerable patriarchs of the valley, purchased the outfit of the deceased 
journal and began the publication of 

THE CENTRAL ALABAMIAN 

This was likewise a weekly, neutral in politics, and died, as had its 
predecessor, after one year's existence. 

Moses B. Lancaster, of Greensboro, a practical printer, revived the 
paper, and ran it for three years, when for want of patronage it was dis- 
continued. 

John Cantley, of Tuscaloosa, came forward, bought the outfit, and 
established 

THE ELYTON HERALD, 

a weekly. The founder of the Herald sold it to Henry A. Hale. During 
the period of Hale's publication the city of Birmingham arose and absorbed 
Elyton. The Herald was moved to Birmingham. 



Birmingham. 197 

Robert H. Henley, first Mayor of Birmingham, then purchased the 
Herald and converted its name to 

THE BIRMINGHAM SUN. 

Mr. Henley edited the Sun with marked ability for six months. 
Matthews & Laughlin bought the Sun and changed the name to 

THE JEFFERSON INDEPENDENT. 

Matthews was editor, and conducted the paper for several years. He 
then moved to Blountsville, and now publishes the Blountsville Sun. 
The first daily was 

THE BIRMINGHAM DAILY SUN, 

founded in 1872. It perished after a brief experiment. Charles E. Cant- 
ley was editor, and became notorious by the publication of truthful 
accounts of the cholera scourge. 

The Daily Sun did not live long. The Independent was resumed. 

THE IRON AGE 

made its appearance in 1874. F. M. Grace was editor and Cantley busi- 
ness manager. 

Willis Roberts, a practical printer, from the cotton region, established 
the paper and published it until 1881. 

In 1 88 1 W. C. Garrett, of Greensboro, Ala., and F. V. Evans, of 
Georgia, both young men of practical experience as publishers and editors, 
came in possession of the paper, and published it under the firm name of 
Garrett & Evans. 

In December, 1881, the same editors and publishers issued the first 
copy of the Daily Age. 

In September, 1882, the Iron Age Publishing Company was incor- 
porated. This movement involved the Sunday Observer, which became 
merged into the corporation. F. V. Evans was elected President and 
General Manager of the company. 

In May, 1883, Evans' health failed from overwork. He sold his 
stock to J. L. Watkins, one of the original incorporators. Watkins then 
became President of the company, and editor-in-chief of the paper. 



igS Jefferson County. 

The Birmingham Age is now the only morning paper pubUshed in 
the mineral regions of Alabama which receives the Associated Press dis- 
patches. As a business enterprise it is a success. It ranks next after the 
Atlanta Constitution, in advertising patronage, among the newspapers of 
the interior South-Western market towns. Its chief effort is to publish 
correct and full information of the developments of the mines and the indus- 
trial growth of the cities, especially Birmingham, of the mineral region. 
It is independent in politics, but supports the Democratic nominees. Its 
political views are advanced. It favors the protection theory as an inten- 
tional incident of Federal taxation, supports the efforts to secure National 
aid to public education, and all efforts to widen the sphere of public 
schools, and favors the movement to repeal the internal revenue laws. It 
is now devoting special attention to the encouragement of the polytechnic 
system of education by the State, and appeals to Congres-s to devote the 
1,000,000 acres of land, now belonging to the Government in Alabama, 
to this specific purpose. 

The Iron Age Publishing Company owns the franchise of the Asso- 
ciated Press for Birmingham, the possession of which gives to the com- 
pany an exclusive use of the night dispatches over the Western Union 
Telegraph lines. 

The influence of the paper has, probably, accomplished more for the 
steady growth of Birmingham than any other single enterprise. During 
the season of the World's Fair and Cotton Exposition at New Orleans 
the company published an extra edition of many thousands for free dis- 
tribution from the headquarters of the Alabama Exhibit. This issue con- 
tained an accurate description of the mineral and agricultural resources of 
Alabama, and of the mines and manufactories then established. It was read 
by tens of thousands, and contributed incalculably to the fame of the State. 

The Daily Age originated the project of calling the Waterway and 
Harbor Improvement Con\ention, assembled at Tuscaloosa in November, 
1885, one of the most important, largest, and intelligent bodies of Ala- 
bama citizens ever convened. The influence of that convention spread 
itself over the entire State, and greatly hastened the industrial revival the 
people now enjoy. 

The circulation of the Daily Age and the Weekly Iron Age constantly 
increases, and orders for sample copies come from all parts of the Union. 

The officers and attaches are J. L. Watkins, Editor-in-Chief, with 
R. H. Watkins and John W. DuBose as assistants. E. R. Quarles is City 
Editor, and W. L. Hawley Reporter. C. M. Hayes is Business Manager, 
with L. C. Talley Cashier. 



Birmingham. 199 



THE SUNDAY MORNING CHRONICLE. 

The first issue of this paper was an eight-column sheet, full of original 
and select matter. It took high rank from the start. It was founded by 
F. V. Evans, editor and proprietor, June 16, 1883. In September of 
that year George M. Cruikshank, a politician and newspaperman of expe- 
rience, from Talladega, moved to Birmingham, and bought a half interest 
in the paper. It yet flourishes under the control of Cruikshank & Grace. 

THE EVENING CHRONICLE. 

This is an outgrowth from the Sunday Morning Chronicle. No 
-enterprise ever founded in Birmingham has- been more indicative of the 
maturing forces of this wonderful city than the Evening Chronicle. 
Founded in faith, nurtured in love, and brought to success by unflagging 
zeal, it has indeed been synonymous in meaning with Birmingham itself. 
A bold spirit plucks the flower of success from the nettle of doubt. So 
it has proved with many enterprises, founded upon faith in the future of 
Birmingham, and so it has proved with the Chronicle. 

On January 17, 1884, the founders of the Evening Chronicle, Messrs. 
F. V. Evans, G. M. Cruikshank, and D. B. Grace issued the first sheet 
■to the world, and it fluttered over the deluge of doubt as the white-winged 
dove flitted from the open window of the ark. The public extended the 
olive branch of welcome from the first, and, thanks to the people, it has 
.survived all the tempests that engulf so many frail journalistic barks ere 
they clear the harbor. The Chronicle has kept pace with the rapid 
growth of Birmingham. The two are linked together with hooks of steel. 
The Chronicle has ever remained faithful to the best interests of the city 
to which it owes its present success, and has never faltered in that allegi- 
;ance. 

In the year 1885 Mr. F. V. Evans was elected city clerk, and sold 
his interest in the Chronicle to his partners, Messrs. G. M. Cruikshank 
and D. B. Grace, who have since successfully pushed it to its present 
prosperous position. The large number of intelligent workingmen in 
Birmingham, and the active life of the business men, who have leisure to 
read only in the evening, gives an afternoon paper an advantage it would 
not possess in scarcely any other city in the South. The Sunday Chron- 
icle, an adjunct of the Evening Chronicle, finds a large circle of readers 
for a similar reason. The business men find the Evening Chronicle inval- 



2CX) Jefferson County. 

uable because of its full and reliable market reports from Liverpool and 
the Eastern centers, published a few minutes after the closing of the 
markets. 

ALABAMA CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 

This paper is the property of the two Alabama Conferences of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It started, May 25, 1883, with a cir- 
culation of over two thousand, and at present has a circulation of more 
than four thousand. Rev. A. S. Andrews, D. D. , was its first editor, and 
Rev. J. W. Christian, his associate. Rev. J. T. Rutlege was the pub- 
lisher, and Mr. R. E. Sullivan had charge of the mechanical department. 

At the end of the first year Dr. Andrews resigned and Dr. Christian 
became editor. 

About the end of the second year Dr. Christian and Mr. Rutlege 
both died. Rev. J. W. Rush, D. D., was elected editor, and Rev. G. R. 
Lynch became the publisher. At the end of four years' work Dr. Rush 
resigned and Rev. W. C. McCoy was elected editor but was not expected 
to take charge until July, 1S87. Dr. Rush still is editor in fact. 

From the very first the Advocate has been successful in every way. 
Its mechanical department, still under control of Mr. Sullivan, has always 
been first-class. For beauty, clearness, and accuracy, unsurpassed by 
any paper in the State. As an advertising medium it has offered the very 
best opportunity of any paper in the State, its circulation being larger 
than any other. Its editorials and selections and contributions have been 
pure, elevating, and strong. While it is a distinctively denominational 
paper, it has never marred its columns with bigotry and narrowness. It 
has discussed religious questions, church policies, and social affairs in the 
spirit of a broad catholicity and an independent manhood. Under such 
management, mechanical, editorial and financial, it has attained a position 
of influence among the secular papers of the State, and of more than 
ordinary weight among the newspapers of the Methodist Church. 

Drs. Rush and McCoy recently purchased the publishing business 
from Mr. Lynch, and have bought new type and new press, and enlarged 
the paper to its preserit size. Under thair joint administration it has 
taken a new start in the race, and sl^ows signs of a very vigorous life. Its 
friends confidently expect it to soon reach a circulation of eight thousand 
or ten thousand, and to be a great power for good. 



Birmmgham. 



THE LABOR UNION. 

This is the recognized organ of organized labor in the mining and 
manufacturing regions of Alabama. It is the friend of all the different 
trades unions. Its first issue had eight hundred subscribers. After it 
had been in existence a year its subscription ran up into the thousands. 
It is a weekly, seven columns, printed on book paper, and edited .with 
marked spirit and ability. Captain George N. Edmonds is the editor, an 
ex-Union soldier. The Labor Union professes to be non-partisaa in 
politics, but always takes a side in political contests. It desires to 
advocate the politics which it believes to be best promotive of the rights 
and interests of labor. 

THE NEW SOUTH. 

This is an illustrated industrial journal, taking rank in size, mechanical 
execution, editorial vigor, and circulation with the best in its class in the 
United States. No scientific or industrial journal presents a handsomer or 
more chaste appearance. The current issue (1887) is fifty thousand copies. 
Into every part of the United States and Canada it goes, and is greeted 
with applause. The political and technical press in all the States consult 
its pages for the most reliable information respecting the resources and 
record of development of the mineral region of Alabama. Mining, 
manufacturing, and agriculture are its specialties, with full reports of the 
general growth of Birmingham. 

The illustrations of the New South are unsurpassed in correctness of 
outline and clearness of perspective. The numerous portraits every issue 
contains are remarkably true to life. Every issue contains a bird's-eye 
view of Birmingham covering two pages. The paper used is of the best, 
and the typography is perfect. 

To represent the marvelous natural resources of Birmingham and 
Jefferson County, and the State of Alabama, and to demonstrate to capital 
and labor in every part of the Union the advantages of residence here is 
the work, well done, of the New South. 

The New South originated in Columbus, Miss., in 1882. March, 
1886, it was removed to Birmingham, and soon entered upon a wide field. 
The founders and conductors are W. H. and W. C. Worthington ; the 
former a native of Lowndes County, one of the wealthiest prairie counties 
of Alabama, the latter a native of Columbus, Miss. The father of these 



Jefferson County. 

two brothers owned a printing establishment, and both sons learned the 
practical art of the printer at an early age, and have all their manhood 
been engaged in the publishing business, 

W. H. Worthington, the elder brother, was captain in the line in the 
Thirteenth Mississippi Infantry during the life of the Southern Con- 
federacy. 

The general advertising and subscription agent of the New South is a 
young gentleman, Mr. L. P. Hill. No small degree of the success 
attained by the paper must be allowed to his energy and attractive manner 
of presenting its claims to the public. Mr. Hill is a "low country" South 
Carolinian, from Beaufort. Sharing there the common fate of the old 
slave-holding class he has, in his present life, illustrated the versatility of 
talent which has shown itself so generally among his countrymen, by 
pursuing, in unaccustomed walks, an honorable ambition to surmount the 
reverses of fortunes. 



THE PLANTERS' JOURNAL, LAND AND RAIL, FURNACE 
AND FACTORY. 

These industrial journals are owned and conducted by "The Plant- 
ers' Journal and Southern Iron Worker Company." The incorporators 
are F. C. Morehead, of Vicksburg. Miss. ; J. W. Billups, Jr., and Robert 
P. Duncan, of Birmingham. The capital stock is §200,000. Five 
thousand dollars has been paid in money, and the remainder subscribed- 
has been secured by property. 

The Planters' Journal, 

a monthly publication, was established in Vicksburg, Miss., in 18S0. as 
the organ of the National Cotton Planters' Association, by F. C. More- 
head. It began at once a remarkable career of prosperity and influence. 
It has been ably edited, and has taken the widest view of Southern 
agricultural possibilities. All departments of the plantation industry 
are separately treated in its columns; the practical rather than the 
experimental results are mainly presented. 

The Planters' Journal was largely instrumental in securing the 
initiation of the Atlanta Exposition of 188 1. It suggested and afterward 
devoted invaluable energies toward the initiation of the Cotton Centennial 
and World's Fair of New Orleans. Its editor, F. C. Morehead, traveled 



Birvtinghain. 203 

for a year in all parts of the United States as Commissioner-General of 
that great enterprise. 

The Planters' Journal has been removed to Birmingham. The 
specialty which it now has in progress of development is the Cotton 
States Field Contest of 1888. Premiums of unprecedented value, ranging 
up in the thousands of dollars each, are offered for-champion acres of the 
cereals, cotton, for plans for farm buildings, and other items denoting 
improved agriculture. 

At this time the paper also devotes itself to the recovery of the 
cotton tax of 1866-67, now held on deposit in the Federal treasury, and 
amounting to many millions of dollars. 

Land and Rail. 

This spirited and handsome monthly is devoted to the encouragement 
of immigration and railroad building. It will unquestionably greatly aid 
the prosperity of Alabama. 

Furnace and Factory, 

the third of this series, is not surpassed in the United States in mechan- 
ical perfection of "get up." It is edited by one of the accomplished 
geologists of the South, Professor Conley. It maintains a valuable corps 
of correspondents in all the great markets of America. Its name indi- 
cates its devotion to pig-iron production, and all kinds of manufactures. 



THE ALABAMA MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 

This monthly is a Birmingham enterprise of the greatest respecta- 
bility. Two young physicians, Drs. J. D. S. and W. E. B. Davis, native 
to Jefferson County, and in full practice in the city, edit it. It is printed 
at the Caldwell Printing Works in the city, and published by J. A. Stadler 
& Co. Dr. B. J. Baldwin, of Montgomery, edits the Eye Department. 
The Medical Society of Jefferson County publishes its proceedings in its 
pages. Original essays of great literary and scientific merit are found 
in them. There can be no question that publications of this kind become 
valuable to the medical profession in indirect ways. In the example of 
The Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal the original essays are often 
addressed to the moral phase of the physician's work, and to the morality 
involved in the acts of patients. The phraseology of these papers renders 



204 Jefferson Comity. 

them intelligible to the ordinar>' reader, and thus they are made to serve 
the double purpose of professional study and popular instruction. 

As this work passes through the press, preliminary arrangements 
have matured to establish the Birmingham Daily Evening News, a 
modern newspaper in scope, and to be specially devoted to the industrial, 
social, and political interests of Birmingham and Alabama. 

WILLIS ROBERTS 

established the oldest newspaper now published in Birmingham, and 
opened the first job printing establishment of the town. His whole life 
has been devoted to the work of a publisher, in which he has founded 
several newspapers, and has grown from a small beginning in business to 
a commanding position and a deservedly good influence in society. 

Mr. Roberts was born at Pendleton, South Carolina, July 5, 1828. 
The father soon moved his family to Georgia, and after nine or ten years' 
abode there came to Wetumpka, Alabama. In his twelfth year the lad 
Willis entered upon his printing career in the office of the Wetumpka 
Argus. This was a weekly newspaper of wide influence. The mails 
in those early times were mostly weekly only, and the readers of news- 
papers were mostly cotton planters residing on their plantations. The 
great orator, and later the leader of the greatest political revolution of 
modern times, William L. Yancey, was the editor of the Wetumpka 
Argus when Willis Roberts began, in his office, to learn the typesetter's art. 
James W. Warren, father of one of the influential men of Birmingham, 
Ed. Warren, was foreman of that little printing office. 

In 1852 Mr. Roberts established, at Dadeville, the Dadeville Banner, 
the first newspaper ever printed in Tallapoosa County. 

In 1855 he became proprietor of the Wetumpka (Coosa County) 
Spectator, which became, in course of the reconstruction of the adjoining 
counties, the Elmore County Standard. 

Order Number 49 from Major-General Pope's headquarters, issued in 
season of profound peace, deprived the Standard of official patronage, in 
order to build up a rival in politics. Such was government in Alabama 
for seven years following Appomattox. 

The material of the Standard was thereupon moved to Columbiana, 
the county seat of Shelby County, and there used to found the Shelby 
Guide. The Guide fought a good fight for white man's rule in Alabama, 
and the liberty of the press. 

In 1872 Mr. Roberts opened the first job printing office in Birming- 



Birmingham. 

ham. In 1886 this house pubhshed for Messrs. N. T. Green & Co. an 
illustrated pamphlet of two hundred pages, called "The Mineral Wealth 
of Alabama, and Birmingham Illustrated," in an edition of five thousand 
copies. No better job could have been executed in the United States. 

February 11, 1874, Roberts & Duval issued the first number of the 
Birmingham Weekly Iron Age. The Daily Age, now the leading 
morning newspaper of Northern Alabama, is the offspring of this enter- 
prise. In 1876 Mr. Roberts associated with him his son Charles, and 
became the proprietor of the Iron Age. 

He has been a resident of the city since 1875. The large job 
printing and bookbinding establishment of Roberts & Son employs his full 
time, and secures for him, in his declining years, a handsome support. 

Mr. Roberts has been twice married : first to Miss Mary Ann 
Harvey, of Chambers County. She is the mother of his sons, Charles 
and Osceola Roberts, both of Birmingham, and both in the office of 
Roberts & Son, Printers and Bookbinders. 

His second wife was Mrs. C. N. Allen, nee Leeper, of Shelby 
County, and they have four daughters 



Tk^ (^[^^Kel^e^. 



Religion has always, from the earliest history of Jefferson County, 
commanded the veneration of the people, and the support of the churches- 
has been a distinguishing custom among the leading men. Abundant 
evidence of this grateful moral character is found in the biographical 
sketches of this volume. Every settlement had, from the first, some 
fixed place of worship, and whether its observances were regular or 
irregular, depended on the ability of the people to support a regular or 
an itinerant clergyman. 

The religious life in Birmingham is remarkable when contemplated 
in view of the rapid growth of the city, made up of people congregated 
from all parts of America, and who have professedly come here to work 
to make money. The churches are all crowded every Sunday, and as the 
seating capacity is enlarged from time to time in the old, new ones are 
projected and built. 



ST. PAUL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Soon after the first few houses were put up in the little village of 
Birmingham there were found among the first settlers some few Irish 
Catholics, who, as usual, never forgot their God or their religion. They 
immediately applied for a priest to visit them now and again, and, as 
Tuscaloosa was the nearest place where a Catholic priest resided, the late 
Very Reverend Father McDonough was appointed to attend the mission. 
This was as early as 1871. Every month or two a visit was made here 
and holy mass offered up in one of two rooms then occupied by the late 



Birmittgha^n. 209- 

Michael Cahalan, who lived at the corner of Fourth avenue and Twenty- 
first street. The missions increased in number every month, as Birming- 
ham even then began to have a great name as the rising city of the South, 
and men flocked here from many prosperous cities in Georgia, Missis- 
sippi, and Alabama. Mr. James O'Connor, Mr. F. P. O'Brien, the late 
Thomas Durkin, Mr. M. T. Smith, and others, some of whom have gone 
to their reward, we hope, others who, driven off through fear, sought 
their fortunes elsewhere, formed the nucleus of the Catholic congregation 
of 1872. 

Very soon they began to talk about the need of a church, and no 
sooner thought of and determined on than one went up as though by 
magic. Colonel Powell, the hard-worker and good-hearted President of 
the Elyton Land Company, gave the lot on the south-west corner of Third 
avenue and Twenty-first street — 50 x 140 feet — for Catholic purposes. 
Father McDonough, of happy memory, and his small congregation went 
to work immediately, and in the fall of 1872 a neat church edifice, 60x30' 
feet, stood ready for blessing at the corner of Second avenue, front- 
ing on Twenty-second street. So great was the promise of a rapidly- 
growing Catholic congregation here that the best part of the lot was kept 
vacant for a new brick church in the near future. The church was dedi- 
cated to God, under the patronage of the Apostle St. Paul, early in Sep- 
tember, 1872. The then vicar general of this diocese, afterward the 
bishop of San Antonio, Texas, Rt. Rev. A. D. Pellicier, performed the 
ceremony, and the late bishop of Mobile, then pastor of Montgomery, 
Ala., D. Manucy, preached the sermon on the occasion. The sermon- 
was a very eloquent one, and the good people of every denomination 
helped to make the occasion a grand success. 

The little congregation were enthusiastic, and hoped that in a few 
years their most sanguine thoughts would be realized — a fine church, ele- 
gant schools, and a handsome pastoral residence. 

The cholera, however, came and blighted not only their building 
prospects but nearly devastated the young and rapidly-growing city. No' 
sooner had grim death, in the garb of this terrible scourge, appeared than 
men, who value life more than great possessions, fled, and especially those- 
who had a charge estrusted to them in the way of wife and little ones. 
The city was almost deserted and all business suspended. A few profes- 
sional men, regardless of life where duty called, remained, among whom 
we may mention Drs. Luckie and Jordan. Their task was a hard and' 
an arduous one. There, too, was to be found the late Father McDon- 
ough, assisting and aiding every way in his power the stricken and dying ; 



Jeffe7-son County. 

not only of his own flock, but also those of his separated brethren who 
needed his help. This was in the summer of 1873, and there then seemed 
very little hope of the Magic City ever rising from its low and pitiful 
condition. Early in 1874 Father McDonough was moved to the cathedral 
at Mobile, and St. Paul's Church again continued to be served from Tusca- 
loosa and Selma. Many priests at various times had charge. Among the 
rest we may mention Very Rev. M. J Hamilton, Rev. Edward Kirwin, 
Rev. M. Gardner, and the late Rev. J. S. J. Crowly. 

In January, 1880, the Rt. Rev. John Quinlan, of happy memory, 
sent the present pastor, Father Browne, as the first resident priest. No 
sooner had he been appointed than the present valuable property owned 
by the Catholic Church was obtained by the bishop and the gentlemen 
already mentioned as forming the nucleus of the early congregation. The 
lot which had been donated by the Land Company reverted back to them, 
and, through the generosity and exceeding kindness of the directors of 
the Elyton Land Company of 1880, the terms were made so easy and the 
donation was so liberal it became possible for the Catholic community to 
acquire the property. Immediately a pastoral residence was built ; the 
church was moved from its old site to its present position ; it was enlarged 
and made more comfortable than it had been, and Sisters were invited, and 
lived in a rented house until in 1882, when the present convent building 
was erected. There still remains a small debt on the convent and lots, 
which, it is hoped, will very soon be wiped out. The church is entirely 
too small to accommodate the present Catholic congregation. A new one 
must soon be erected, and this will be immediately after the debt is paid. 
The schools are also too small, and accommodations must soon be made 
for the pupils. The census just taken shows a Catholic population in the 
city alone of about one thousand souls. It is hoped that very soon a fine 
gothic structure, worthy of Catholic faith, as displayed everywhere 
throughout the civilized world, will be raised in Birmingham, and, free 
from debt by the generosity of Catholic hearts, will be dedicated to the 
services of the living God. There are at present two resident priests in 
Birmingham — Very Rev. J. J. Browne, rector, and Rev. James P. McCaf- 
ferty, assistant. 

There are five regular missions attached to Birmingham — Pratt Mines ; 
Church of St. Catharine of Sienna, Gadsden ; Church of St. James, War- 
rior ; Church of St. Joseph, Helena ; a station at Wheeling, and many 
other small places where mass is occasionally said. 



Birmingham. 



Very Rev. John J. Browne. 

Father Browne was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, in 1840 ; 
hence, he is now in the forty-eighth year of his age. His early studies 
were made in Cork, a city famous for its excellent schools and learned 
men. He left his native land in 1S60, with Bishop Quinlan, who had just 
been consecrated second bishop of Mobile. Very soon after his arrival 
in the United States he entered Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, in Maryland, 
one of the most noted Catholic institutions of learning in this country. 
Here he remained during the war, and received the degree of A. M., 
graduating with distinguished honors at the close of the collegiate course. 
His theological studies were pursued at the same institution, and on 
August 29, 1866, he was ordained a priest in tlie cathedral at Mobile. His- 
first mission was at St. Patrick's Church at Apalachicola, Fla. , where he 
remained fourteen months. As a young priest he soon attracted atten- 
tion by the character of his sermons and executive ability in his pastoraL 
work. Possessing a most liberal education, his preaching was marked by 
erudition and logic, with a pleasing delivery. From Apalachicola his 
bishop transferred him to Mobile, appointing him pastor of St. Patrick's 
Church in that city, which position he filled until March, 1877, when he 
was appointed rector of the cathedral. His next charge was Birming- 
ham, to which he was assigned in January, 1880, becoming the first resi- 
dent Catliolic pastor in the Magic City. In May, 1880, he was appointed 
Vicar forane, wlaich gives him the title of "Very Reverend" in his 
church, and this office was held by him until the death of Bishop Quinlan, 
in March, 1883. It was during the early days of his pastorate here that 
the valuable property now owned by the Catholic Church was acquired. 
This property is situated in the heart of the city, adjacent to the lot on 
which the courthouse is built, and embraces between three and four 
acres. Under the charge of Father Browne, the interests of his church 
have steadily grown here, and few figures have become more widely 
familiar to all classes of our population than his. He possesses remark- 
able energy and force of character, with the highest social attainments. 
As a business man he has few equals. Had he chosen a commercial life 
he must undoubtedly have acquired success and fortune. A ripe scholar, 
a polished gentleman, a rare linquist, a fluent and pleasing pulpit orator, 
and withal a devoted priest and pastor, his church is to be congratulated 
in having such a servant. Many instances exist of large-hearted charity 
displayed by him which have never been known to the public. This 



Jcffersoii Count^'. 

trait stamps him as possessing another bright quahty, viz: love for his 
fellows, no matter what their faith may be. 

It will thus be seen that Father Browne possesses a combination of 
qualities that serve to adorn his character both as a man and a priest, and, 
without eulogy, he is one of the landmarks of Birmingham, in which all 
good citizens can feel a just pride. 

St. Paul's is in a highly prosperous condition. The business sagacity 
which led to the investment in the real estate owned by the Catholic 
Church when it was very cheap is discovered in the great appreciation of 
value it now holds. A new and enlarged church will be built upon it, 
and a Catholic school is designed to stand by the side of it, the space 
being ample for the grounds necessary to surround both. 



CHURCH OF THE ADVENT. 

The parish of The Advent, Protestant Episcopal, Birmingham, is 
an offshoot from St. John's parish, Elyton, for it had its origin in mis- 
sionary services, rendered by the rector of that church. Rev. P. A. Fitts, 
early in the year 1872. And so many of St. John's parishioners were 
subsequently transferred to Birmingham that its corporate life was 
destroyed, and it eventually lapsed into a mission or appendage of the 
rapidly developing Church of the Advent. The mother organization 
thus died, as it were, in giving birth to the daughter, but the vigorous 
life of the daughter, it is now hoped, will ere long reanimate the dead 
corporation of the old church, and give it, in the resurrection, a stronger 
and more enduring existence. The history, therefore, of St. John's, 
Elyton, is a necessary introduction to the historj- of the Church of the 
Advent. 

In the decade from 1S40 to 1850 the Episcopal Church had no foothold 
in Alabama between the parallels of Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, except a 
feeble parish at Jacksonville, organized in 1849. Some time during this 
decade there came from Connecticut two sisters, the Misses Amy and 
Maria H. Welton, to teach school. Miss Maria subsequently married Dr. 
Nathaniel Hawkins, and her sister Mr. Mortimer Jordan. The loving 
devotion of these two earnest women to the principles and worship of 
the church planted the seeds from which sprang up and grew the life which 
afterward developed, through many difficulties and discouragements, into 
the organized parish of St. John's, Elyton, in the year 1850. The following 



Birmingham. 

is the brief and unique Article of Association, with signatures attached, 
under which the new parochial life began, and is copied from the parish 
records : 

"We, the undersigned, being desirous to form a parish at this place, 
to be called St. John's parish, do promise to conform to the doctrine and 
discipline of the church." [Signed] Nathaniel Hawkins, Maria H. Haw- 
kins, William S. Mudd, Florence A. Mudd, Mortimer Jordan, Amy Jor- 
dan, M. T. Porter, Thomas W. Earle, W. A. Walker, C. H. Williams. 

The first vestry of the new parish thus organized were Dr. Nathaniel 
Hawkins, M. T. Porter, C. H. Williams, and Thomas W. Earle. Mr. 
Earle was elected secretary, and Dr. Hawkins and Mr. C. H. Williams 
senior and junior wardens, respectively. The earliest ministrations on 
record, before this organization, were made in May, 1849, by Rev. Henry 
C, Lay, afterward the beloved Bishop of Easton, Maryland, and Rev. J. M. 
Robertson, a noble and devoted priest, both of them from Huntsville, 
They held services, preached, and baptized a number of children, and 
administered holy communion. 

From the time of its organization in 1850 until 1870, the parish had 
no regular services. Lay reading, with only occasional visits from the 
bishop and neighboring clergy, the nearest of whom was fifty-six miles 
away, at Tuscaloosa, was all the nurture its young life received until 1 870, 
except the short rectorship of Rev. W. Fayette Davidson, who took 
charge on the 26th of August, 1856, and resigned on the isth of January, 

1S57. 

The clergy, who, besides the Bishops, Rt. Rev. N. H. Cobbs, D.D., 
and Rt. Rev. R. H. Wilmer, D. D. , in the long interval of twenty years 
between 1850 and 1870, visited and ministered in the parish were Rev. 
Messrs. D. D. Flower, H. C. Lay, Thomas A. Morris, William Johnson, 
R. D. Nevius, J. D. Easter, Thomas J. Beard, and S. M. Bird. The long- 
est intervals between these clerical visits was one of two years and ten 
months, and another of one year and eight months. 

In July, 1870, that faithful and devoted missionary. Rev. J. F. Smith, 
now of Talladega, Ala., took charge and served as rector until July, 1871, 
when Rev. P. A. Fitts succeeded him, and continued in charge until after 
the parish had lost its corporate life in the new parish of the Advent, Bir- 
mingham, in 1873. The number of baptisms in these twenty-three years 
was 91 ; confirmations, 57; communicants, in 1872, 51; marriages, 12; 
funerals, 14. 

During the long period of irregular ministrations the services were 
held at times in the Methodist Church, at others in the courthouse, and 



2 1 4 Jefferson Coiitity. 

in a log schoolhouse on the site of the present school building. The 
church building was not erected until 1871. The pews were taken from a 
church erected some years before at Ashville, St. Clair County, and 
removed to Elyton because the congregation at that point had all died or 
removed. This work was accomplished largely through the self-denying 
efforts of the daughters of the faithful senior warden and lay-reader, Dr. 
N. Hawkins. 

In the fall of 1871 Rev. P. A. Fitts. deacon, took charge. The 
communicants then r.'imbered fifty-seven, while at the mission point of 
Birmingham, whose foundation was then being laid, he reported to con- 
vention in 1872 only sixteen communicants. From this time the life of 
the mission station began to abso'f u the life of the old parish of St. John's. 
The new parish of the Advent was organized early in 1873, applied and 
was admitted into union with the diocese at the convention in May of that 
year, in Mobile, with William Gessner, Ellis Phelan, George R. Ward, 
R. H. Pearson, S. W. Gillespie as deputies. 

Rev. P. A. Fitts became rector of the new parish and in one year 
the number of communicants increased from sixteen to forty, with a cor- 
responding decrease in the number of St. John's, Elyton. The first vestry 
consisted of William Gessner, R. H. Pearson, W. P. Barker, W. J. Milner, 
and Dr. Sydney Smith. The date of their election and all records of their 
official action have been lost. 

The Elyton Land Company, in 1871, in laying off the city, generously 
permitted the selection and donated the beautiful lot, 200 by 198 feet, on 
the corner of Sixth avenue and Twentieth street, for church purposes, 
and efforts were made to build a chapel on it in 1872, the first services 
having been held in a small storeroom on the corner of First avenue and 
Twenty-first street. The chapel, with some aid from St. John's, Mont- 
gomery, and other points, was completed and ready for use in the spring 
of 1873 at a cost of ^1,200, and was the first church building erected in 
Birmingham. It was 60 by 25 feet, and seated about 200 persons. 

Rev. Mr. Fitts continued in charge about three years, nearly one 
year of which time, having had the misfortune to break his leg by a fall from 
the railroad platform at Calera, he preached, withal, to his people by his 
example of patient endurance of a long and painful confinement. This earn- 
est and eloquent preacher and devoted pastor was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., 
reared partly there and partly in Mobile, and educated at the University 
of Alabama. He chose the profession of the law, and had entered suc- 
cessfully into practice in his native place, when he was moved to devote 
his heart and his energies to the sacred ministry. Upon his ordination to 



Biriningkmn. 2 1 5 

the deaconate, May 15, 1869, he was assigned to duty by the bishop in 
Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, until 187 1, when he was transferred to St. 
John's, Elyton, from which latter place he was transferred to the Church 
of the Advent, as we have before seen. The pleasant memories of his 
faithful pastorate here has caused the hearts of his old parishioners to 
follow his successful career elsewhere, and to note with pleasure his recent 
return to the Diocese of Alabama, to minister in the neighboring city of 
Anniston. The number of communicants increased in the three years of 
his rectorship from sixteen to eighty-eight. Having received a call to 
Clarksville, Tennessee, he resigned, and left to take his new charge in 
October, 1875. 

There was a vacancy in the rectorship from this time until the follow- 
ing February, when Rev. James A. Van Hoose, born in Tuscaloosa, 
educated at the University of the South, Sewanee, and ordained deacon 
in St. John's, Mobile, February 2, 1876, was assigned to his first clerical- 
duty, by the bishop, in this parish. His charge, unfortunately, was. 
of the short duration of four months, ending in June, 1876. Too 
close study of the Greek language had so impaired his eyesight as to 
render it impossible to continue his studies without incurring danger of 
total blindness, and caused him to abandon his hope of the priesthood, 
and to give himself to such secular work as would maintain his family, and 
serve the church as opportunity might offer, as a perpetual deacon and 
willing assistant to the rector in charge. His energy and success as a man 
of business is suggestive of what his usefulness to the church as a conse- 
crated priest might have been had he been able to realize his earlier 
hopes. His resignation was followed by another period of five months, 
in which there were no regular ministrations, only occasional services hav- 
ing been rendered by Rev. George Hunt, of Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, 
and Rev. P. A. Fitts, of Clarksville, Tennessee. 

In November, 1876, Rev. A. Kinney Hall, a deacon from the Diocese 
of Indiana, was appointed to the vacancy. Mr. Hall had a special apti- 
tude for church building and decorating, and succeeded, with the aid of 
the ladies, who raised the money, in adding much to the appearance of 
the interior of the very plain chapel. The Sunday school bought and 
paid for the bell, and the whole lot was inclosed with a board fence. He 
reported to the convention of 1877 seventy-one nominal and forty-five 
actual communicants, indicating a loss of seventeen in one year. Mr. 
Hall's ministrations as deacon in charge continued until October, 
1877, when he was transferred to Livingston and Gainesville. After three 
years of service there he was ordained to the priesthood in 1881, and soon 
13 



2 1 6 Jefferson County. 

after removed to the Diocese of Louisiana, where he is still laboring as a 
parish priest. 

On the 1st of March, 1878, Rev. Charles Morris, deacon, from the 
Diocese of Kentucky, was put in charge, and on his ordination to the 
priesthood in May, of the same year, at the convention in Demopolis, 
was made rector. In the autumn he had the misfortune to lose his wife, 
and in January, 1879, having received a call to Hopkinsville, Ky., he 
resigned and left for that place. He was subsequently elected rector of 
St. Paul's Church, Evansville, Indiana, where he is now doing a most 
acceptable and successful work. At the convention of May, 1878, he 
reported one hundred and sixteen communicants. 

Mr. Morris having given up the work in January, 1879, there was 
again an interregnum until the following November, when Rev. J. B. 
Gray, called from Los Angelos, California, entered upon the duties of the 
rectorship. During his administration of three years the present rectory 
was built, mainly by the strenuous exertions of the ladies, always fore- 
most in every good work. It cost about ;$i,500. It was not completed 
at the time of Mr. Gray's resignation, and was not occupied by him. His 
work in the parish was marked by a quiet, humble, persistent, and faith- 
ful effort to meet the difficulties and discouragements of the situation, 
difficulties growing out of the depressed condition of the city, not yet 
fully rallied from the terrible effects of the cholera epidemic of 1873, and 
a changing population. 

In 1879 there were 112 communicants. He reported, in 1880, only 
109, one having died and two removed, and on his departure, November, 
1881, there were 125, showing an increase the last year of sixteen, all but 
one of whom were confirmations. 

This faithful pastor was specially devoted to the care and comfort of 
the poor and needy. Mr. Gray is a native of Maryland. He became 
canonically connected with this diocese in 1864, but circumstances of the 
civil war hindered his actual residence and working here until 1866, when 
he took charge of Trinity Church, Florence, and St, John's, Tuscumbia, 
in North Alabama, remaining until the latter part of 1867, when he 
removed to Los Angelos, California, from which place he was called to 
the Church of the Advent. From this point he returned to his native 
State, and has since been the beloved rector of Trinity Church, St. Mary's 
City. 

Rev. J. A. Van Hoose, who had again become a citizen and merchant 
of Birmingham, during the latter part of Mr. Gray's sta>-, rendered val- 
uable assistance in the Sunday school, as vestryman, and otherwise 



Bii-minghmn . 2 i 7 

attended, as opportunity offered, to the spiritual wants of tlie congrega- 
tion, until the present incumbent, Rev. Thomas J. Beard, took charge on 
the 1st of May, 1882. 

During the now nearly five years of his labors as rector the church 
has gone steadily forward, the chapel has been twice enlarged, so that it 
will now seat nearly if not quite 400 comfortably. The first enlargement 
and repairing was made in January, 1884, and cost nearly $900, ;?250 of 
which was borne by the Ladies' Aid Society. This gave only seventy-five 
additional sittings, and the necessity for more room to accommodate the 
rapidly increasing congregation has caused the recent addition of a wing 
seating 150 persons. Both the main building and part of the wing have 
been carpeted, the wing by the generosity of Mr. J. T. Nixon, and the 
main, or old part, by the Ladies' Aid Society, which, during the past five 
years, has made and expended on the church and rectory, and in generous 
personal gifts to the rector and his friends, many hundreds of dollars, and 
are now engaged in accumulating a fund to furnish the new church when 
built, as it will soon undoubtedly be, on the beautiful lot corner Sixth 
avenue and Twentieth street. Besides the Ladies' Aid Society, always 
working in churchly and legitimate ways for the good of the church, there 
has been organized a guild of men, called the Guild of St. John's, in honor 
of the old parish at Elyton, and also an altar chapter of young people to care 
for the proper cleanliness and adornment of the altar and chancel. There 
have been two Mission Sunday schools organized, one at St. John's, Elyton, 
and the other on the south side of the railroad, numbering about fifty 
pupils and eight teachers each. The first is under the superintendence of 
Samuel Greene, Esq., and the second under Prof N. D. Van Sjxkle, of 
the city high school. The Sunday school in the church on the North Side 
numbers near lOO scholars, and is under the superintendence of Rev. J. A. 
Van Hoose, who visits on alternate Sundays, in the afternoon, the Mission 
Sunday schools, and assists the rector in the morning service, and in other 
important ways. 

The growth of the preceding three years had been hampered and 
hindered by the paral)-sing influence of the cholera visitation upon the life 
and development of the city, by the shortness of the rectorships, and the 
frequent and prolonged vacancies of the cure, and by other unavoidable 
circumstances incident to its new and feeble condition. The increase of 
the number of communicants from 125 in 1882 to more than 400 at this 
writing has been largely due to the rapid increase of the city's population, 
and whatever may or may not have been the fidelity of the rector, local 
conditions of a providential nature have had a large share in promoting 



2 1 8 Jefferso)L Coicnty. 

the present growth and strength of the parish. Not only has the number 
of communicants increased nearly fourfold, but the financial strength has 
increased in even a much larger ratio, and the best interests of the church 
require the organization of a new parish, according to the natural divisions 
of the city by the railroads, and due steps are being taken to effect this- 
new organization, and call a minister to take charge of it at once. The 
temporal prosperity and growth of the city and its suburbs offer a large 
field for the spiritual activities of the church, but while the field is white 
to the harvest, the laborers are few. 

The present vestry consists of Charles Wheelock, senior warden ; 
W. J. Milner, junior warden ; A. W. Adger, secretary ; Robert Jemison, 
treasurer; R. H. Pearson, T. C. Thompson, J. P. Mudd, J. R. Carter, 
J. F. Johnston, T. B. Lyons, and James B. Cobbs. Of these only R. H. 
Pearson, Esq., and Major W. J. Milner were members of the original 
vestry of 1873. Other laymen who have acted as vestrymen in the brief 
history of this young parish are Hon. G. W. Hewitt, J. M. Earle, J. L. 
Lockwood, G. B. West, William Gessner, H. J. Winn, Ellis Phelan, 
F. H. Armstrong, Dr. M. H. Jordan, M. T. Porter, and Dr. H. P. 
Cochrane. 

Rev. Thomas J. Beakd, Rector Church of the Advent. 

Mr. Beard was born March, 1835, in Lowndes County, Ala. In 
early boyhood days he lost both parents, and went to live in the village of 
Dayton, Marengo County, with the family of his kinsman, R. H. Picker- 
ing, Esq., a large cotton planter. At that time Dayton was the place of 
residence of many rich planters, who, owning plantations in the surround- 
ing country, fi.xed their residences on this .sandy plain, where health, good 
water, pleasant grounds, schools and churches, and general society might 
be found. 

Thomas J. Beard entered the male academy of the place, then pre- 
sided over by an accomplished gentleman and graduate of Chapel Hill 
College, Dr. W. J. Kittrell. He at once rose on his merits to the head 
of his class, and no one of his fellows ever aspired higher than to be next 
below "Tom Beard." In recitations and in deportment his weekly report 
was seldom less than "perfect," while on the playground his activity and 
proficiency were among the foremost. 

For several years the youth was a valued inmate of the' family of 
Andrew P. Calhoun, a cotton planter, residing near Dayton, son of the 
Carolina statesman. Mr. Calhoun's sons were too young, as he thouglit, 



Birmmghani. 219 

to attend, unprotected, a neighborhood school, a mile from home, and he, 
having formed a strong attachment to the orphan lad, invited him to come 
to live in his family, and become a friend to his own boys. Founded on 
this very marked evidence of confidence, placed upon one so young, grew 
up a life-long mutuality of friendship between him and the entire Calhoun 
family. A pleasant display of this sentiment was made when John C. 
Calhoun, one of the "boys" mentioned, was about to be married in a 
•distant State. He demanded that he should enter upon that happy change 
of life with the blessing of his youthful friend, now a respected priest. 
Therefore, Rev. Mr. Beard was sent for to perform the marriage service. 

Rev. Mr. Beard was educated at the University of Alabama. He 
first fixed upon the law as his profession, but, after a few months study in 
Dayton, he altered his purpose, and began to prepare for the ministry. 
He was ordained deacon at St. Paul's Church, Lowndesboro, his native 
place, June 24, i860. May 9, 1864, he was ordained priest at St. John's, 
Montgomery. His first charge was Trinity Church, Demopolis, where 
he preached to a highly intelligent congregation for several years with 
marked acceptability. From Demopolis he went to assume charge of St. 
James, Eufaula. While in this work he went to Gen. Joseph E. John- 
ston's army, then engaged in the great Georgia campaign, as a missionary, 
and remained there, often under fire along the lines, until that campaign 
ended. Evangelistic work in Northern Alabama, and the pastorate of 
St. John's, Helena, Ark., employed him until called to the then largest 
parish in the State, St. John's, Mobile. There he labored for ten years 
■with distinguished success. The church communicants increased, until 
the number approached 700. 

From Mobile Rev. Mr. Beard came to his present charge, and the 
history of the church since then is the record of his work. His energy 
is ceaseless. Of late years the reverend gentleman preaches without notes. 
He is logical, well-informed, and very animated and forcible in delivery. 
He prepares his subject by close thought, and an excellent memory and 
•disciplined mind preserve the train of study for utterance in words found 
ready for the occasion. There are few more fluent public speakers than 
he. As a parish priest he is active and untiring in every good work. He 
has been repeatedly chosen as one of the three clerical delegates from the 
Diocese of Alabama to the Triennial General Convention of the church. 
He has recently resigned the position of trustee of the University of the 
South. 

In 1864, after his return from the army. Rev. Mr. Beard was married 
to Miss Chandler, then a refugee from Norfolk, Va., which place had 



Jefferson Coitiity. 

been evacuated by the Confederate military and naval forces. Mrs. 
Beard's ancestors had, for generations in the past, been officers in the 
American navy, and her abode in Eufaula resulted from the transfer of 
her guardian and kinsman, Captain Brown, to the Confederate gunboat 
service on the Mississippi. 

Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Beard have enjoyed a full share of domestic hap- 
piness, and have reared a family of sons and daughters, valuable mem- 
bers of Birmingham society, so far as they may have come to years of 
maturity. 

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

This church was organized in May, 1872, by a committee of the 
Presbytery of Tuscaloosa, appointed for that purpose. The names of the 
original members are as follows: Messrs. C. W. Hughes, T. S. Woods, 
Mrs. Mollie Hughes, Mrs. Nancy Hughes, Miss R. A. Hughes, Miss H. 
P. Hughes, Mr. P. B. Kennedy, and Miss Sue Thompson — eight in all. 
Mr. T. S. Woods and Mr. C. W. Hughes were elected by the people, and 
ordained and installed as elders by the committee. 

From May, 1872, until April, 1874, Rev. W. L. Kennedy was 
employed by the church as stated supply. 

Messrs. R. B. Jones and J. K. Spence were added to the eldership, 
and Messrs. J. A. and John Going to the board of deacons, in 1873. 

Some twenty members were added to the church during the two years 
of Mr. Kennedy's stay with it. 

The church lost only two members during the cholera scourge in 
1873; one, the wife of the minister in charge, and one, the wife of 
Colonel Terry. 

Mr. Kennedy resigned his charge as stated supply in April, 1874, hav- 
ing battled bravely with the fell destroyer and gave up his companion in the 
struggle. He moved to Texas, where he still preaches the gospel of love. 

From April, 1874, until December of the same year, the church was 
without any one to break to them the Bread of Life. The elders secured an 
occasional sermon, and kept up the Sabbath school and prayer meetings. 
Thus the life of the church was preserved. In August, 1874, at a con- 
gregational meeting, presided over by Rev. C. A. Stillman, D. D., a call 
was made out and presented to the Presbytery of Tuscaloosa for the pas- 
toral services of Rev. L. S. Handley. This call was placed in his hands 
by the Presbytery in session at Bethesda Church, Pickens County, Ala., 
October 29, 1874, and was accepted. 



Birmingham. 

The pastor-elect took charge of the church December 15, of the 
same year, and was installed as pastor January 25, 1875, by a committee 
consisting of Revs. C. A. Stillman and T. S. Winn. 

Dr. Stillman preached the sermon, proposed the constitutional ques- 
tions and delivered the "charge" to the pastor. The Rev. T. S. Winn 
delivered the charge to the people. This occasion is still remembered by 
a few as a deeply interesting and solemn one. The pastor and his " little 
flock" of twenty-five members took their first communion together and 
pledged themselves to the work before them on that day. It was a "day 
of small things" but a day of hope. During the first year the member- 
ship was more than doubled. The little company had a "mind to work," 
and the "Lord of the harvest" blessed their labors. For several years 
the struggle was a hard one. The church felt keenly the "pressure of the 
times" during the years 1877, '78 and '79, when there was but little 
development in the city and great apprehensions entertained on the part 
of many as to its future. 

Notwithstanding the hard times and discouragements for four or five 
years, the church grew constantly in numbers and in Christian work. 
Since 1880 its development has been more rapid and substantial, thus 
keeping pace, in a good degree, with the growth of the city. The mem- 
bership has even maintained, as a whole, a high degree of Christian mor- 
ality and influence, and has shown considerable zeal for the development 
of the cause of Christ in this city. 

In March, 1875, Mr. W. H. McNeil and Mr. D. R. Dunlap were 
added to the board of deacons. In 1877 Mr. McNeil was called to the 
eldership. In 187S Mr. William Berney and Mr. J. A. Allen were 
elected and set apart to the office of deacon, and Mr. J. A. Going was 
called to serve the church in the eldership. In 1880 Messrs. Allen, 
Berney, and White, and in 1883 Messrs. Hubbert, Sherrod, and Anglin 
were added to the eldership. In 1884 Dr. Godden was elected to the 
eldership, and Dr. F. D. Nabers and Captain J. C. Henley were elected 
to the office of deacon. Later Messrs. Roden, Rochester, and Elliott 
were called tn serve in the same office. 

In May, 1886, Messrs. T. A. E. Evans, J. E. Webb, and John 
Going were added to the board of elders. 

There have been many changes, by death and removal, so that but 
few of the members who were here at the beginning of the present pasto- 
rate are now left. 

During the last few years the growth of the church has been rapid. 
In 1885 over one hundred members were added. The Second and Third 



Jc^cyson Coimty. 

Presbyterian Churches have grown out of the First Church. They are 
both doing efficient work in their respective localities. 

The house of worship of the First Church was removed from Elyton 
in 1872. The self-sacrificing labors of a few accomplished this work with 
the aid of friends. The building has undergone many valuable repairs 
from time to time. It has been enlarged to accommodate the wants of 
the congregation, and now seats comfortably something over four hundred. 
Much of the work done has been through the ladies of the church. They 
have ever abounded in love and good works. Mainly through their labors 
the church manse was erected in 1883. 

The "Ladies' Aid Society," composed of the Christian women of 
the church, has been an element of strength and help in all the history of 
the church. They have often gladdened their pastor's heart in "coming 
up to the help " of the Lord's work in time of need. 

Early in 1886 the church addressed itself to the noble work of a new 
church building to cost not less than §25,000. Efficient committees were 
appointed and a liberal subscription made. The work is now being 
vigorously prosecuted and will be completed in the near future. The 
church building will be modern in style, with ample and comfortable 
seatings, and, when completed, a very imposing structure. It will remain 
a monument to the faith and love of the Lord's people to his cause. 

The church has now a membership of three hundred and fifty, a 
flourishing Sabbath school, seven elders, six deacons, a Ladies' Aid 
Society, a young ladies' " Working Circle," and the society of "Young 
Workers," a society of children. 

The prospects for the future were never brighter or more hopeful, 
"The Lord has done great things for us, whereof we are glad. To him 
be all the praise." 

Rev. L. S. Handley, 

Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, was born near Morgan's Hill, 
Dallas County, Ala., the 29th of September, 1840. His father was 
William L. Handley, his mother Malinda M. Handley, nee Morgan. 
She was twice married — first to Mr. Nunnelee. 

Mr. Handley moved to Louisiana in 1848, where he lived on the farm 
with his parents until the year 1856, when he returned to Alabama, and 
made his home with his half brother, Mr. S. F. Nunnelee, who was a 
father to him. (His own father died in Louisiana in 1853.) He learned 
the printer's trade, and worked with his brother, who was editor and 



Birminghaju. 223 

proprietor of the Eutavv Observer. While in Eutaw he connected himself 
with the Presbyterian Church, and became one of its active young 
members. 

It was here his attention was turned to the gospel ministry by his 
friend, Robert Crawford, then a young lawyer, and his pastor. Rev. John 
R. Bowman. 

He placed himself under the care of the Presbytery, and started to 
school in 1858, pursuing his studies one year under Professor Derby, then 
rector of the Episcopal Church in Eutaw. 

He afterward entered a high school for boys at Pleasant Ridge, Ala., 
■under control of the Messrs. Archibald, who were successful as teachers. 

He entered the army in 1862 as a private soldier, with the Thirty- 
sixth Alabama Infantry, and shared the fortunes of war with the brave 
men in that regiment, serving under Generals Bragg, Johnston, and Hood. 
He received his parole at Greensboro, N. C. , in May, 1865. 

He returned to his brother's home, near Eutaw, the latter part of 
May, 1865, and took charge of a school for one year. 

He prepared for college under Professor Tutwiler, at Greene Springs, 
Ala. , a man of blessed memory. 

He entered college at Oxford, Miss., in 1867, and graduated in i86g, 
with a class composed largely of ex-soldiers. 

He studied theology at Columbia, S. C. , for three years, and gradu- 
ated in May, 1872; was licensed by the Presbytery of Tuscaloosa the 13th 
of June of the same year at Hebron Church, in Pickens County, Ala. 

He took charge of two churches in Greene County, Ala., and was 
ordained to the full work of the ministry in June, 1873. 

He served the churches at Clinton and Boligee, Ala., for two and a 
half years — his first pastoral charge. Here he lost, by death, his com- 
panion, who lived to help him in his work only one year. 

She was Miss S. C. Lewis, of Oxford, Miss., an accomplished, 
Christian woman, who made many warm friends in both churches before 
her death. 

These churches grew substantially during this short pastorate, and he 
gave them up with reluctance. 

Mr. Handley took charge of the Birmingham Presbyterian Church 
the 15th of December, 1874. He was installed as pastor of the 'First 
Church by a committee of Tuscaloosa Presbytery January 25, 1875. His 
history has been identified with the history of this church for twelve years. 
He has had the joy of seeing the "little handful" of brave Christian souls 
grow into a strong church ; of seeing a town of 3,000 grow into a city of 



2 24 Jefferson County. 

35,000. He is tenderly and strongly attached to his people, who have 
stood by him, and worked with him, in the cause of Christ. 

He has taken part in the organization of the Second and Third Pres- 
byterian Churches, which grew out of "missions" planted and worked hy 
the First Church. 

Mr. Handley was married, a second time, to Mrs. Cornelia P. Windham 
June 20, 1876 — the daughter of Rev. A. C. Ramsey. She has been to 
him a worthy helpmate in all his work ; shares with him the esteem and 
love of his church, and the success of his labors. Their union has beea 
blessed with five children — precious pledges of their love. These are 
growing up around their table "like olive plants," and give promise of 
being a joy and crown to them in their later years. 



SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

This church is an offshoot from the First Presbyterian Church of 
Birmingham. It was organized July 1884, by Rev. James Watson. The 
place of worship was then a schoolhouse on Avenue E, between Tenth 
and Eleventh streets. Eleven members were of the congregation. Sep- 
tember I, 1 886, the congregation moved into their new church on Avenue 
C, between the same streets. There are now some sixty members, and 
the church is in a prosperous condition. Dr. E. H. Sholl, one of the 
leading physicians of the city, is superintendent. Rev. James Watson is. 
the pastor, and Rev. Mr. Lapsley is the assistant pastor. 



THE THIRD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

was organized by a commission of the Presbytery of Tuscaloosa, at the 
corner of Avenue G and Twenty-second street, on Friday night, July 11, 
1884. The commission consisted of Rev. L. S. Handley, Moderator; Dr. 
E. H. Sholl and J. M. Thomson, Ruling Elders, assisted by the Rev. 
James Watson, Evangelist of the Presbytery, and Rev. W. H. Clagett, 
Evangelist of the Synod of Alabama. Thirty persons enrolled their 
names, and were received into the membership of the Third Presbyterian 
Church, four were received by certificate from the First Presbyterian 
Church of Birmingham, and twenty-six upon examination and confession 
of their faith in Christ, eight of whom received the ordinance of baptism. 



Bb'mingha77i . 225 

Two ruling elders and two deacons were elected, and set apart to their 
several offices. The Third Presbyterian Church of Birmingham was then 
declared by the moderator to be duly organized in the name of the 
"Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 

J. M. Thomson and J. H. McCune were elected Ruling Elders, and 
C. H. Reid and George D. Rice, Deacons. The first trustees were elected 
August 10, 1884. They were : J. M. Thomson, M. W. Steele, and J. H. 
McCune, with all the powers of a building committee. Charles H. Reid 
was, at the same time, elected Secretary and Treasurer. 

The Rev. James Watson was the first pastor, preaching once a month, 
but prayer-meetings were conducted regularly every week ; also a Sabbath 
school. 

Rev. James Watson became the regular pastor October i, 1884. 

The committee began operations toward building a place to worship 
in the fall of 1884, under instruction to " erect a modest wooden building 
with brick basement, to cost about ^2,500; to build as they have means, 
and finish when their subscription list is enlarged adequately for that 
purpose." This building was completed in 1886. 

The pastors have been Rev. James Watson and Rev. W. M. Brimm. 

In a narrative of the church, found in the records, we find this 
touching allusion to one of its early pastors : 

"This narrative cannot be closed without bearing testimony to the 
faithful and consecrated labors of the Rev. William H. Clagett in preach- 
ing the gospel before and after the organization of the church. The 
early organization is due to the ' power ' with which he preached ' Christ 
and him crucified. ' His name and labors of love will ever be cherished 
with profound gratitude and sincere affection." 

The church is located on the corner of Avenue F and Twenty-second 
street. 

The present pastor is Rev. W. M. Brimm, and the elders are J. M. 
Thomson, J. T. Moore, A. F. Brainard, and E. G. Brownlee. 

The membership now numbers eighty, and the Sabbath school sixty 
scholars. 

The deacons are C. Reid and H. E. Klein. 

The church is in a flourishing condition and growing steadily. 



2 26 Jefferson Cojinty. 



THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in Birmingham 
in 1876 by Rev. J. C. Armstrong, with about eighteen or twenty 
members, March, 1887, there were one hundred members, and a Sunday 
school of thirty pupils average attendance. 

In 1878 the congregation built a new church on the corner of Fifth 
avenue and Eighteenth street. The building is a frame one, and has a 
seating capacity of about three hundred. The church also has a neat 
parsonage on the corner of the same lot with the church. 

Rev. W. C. Denson is now the pastor. 



THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

In 1 87 1, when the prospective city had scarcely been laid off, and yet 
had begun to be the talk far around, the Home Mission Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention appointed Rev. John L. D. Hillyer a mis- 
sionary to Birmingham. He came in the fall of that year, when there 
were not over one or two hundred houses here. 

The first church was organized June 21, 1872, with about twelve 
members. Mrs. N. F. Miles is the only member now left who was in 
the organization, and N. F. Miles is the next oldest. At the time of the 
organization he had not brought his letter from Montgomery. Rev. 
Hillyer served until October 3, 1872. 

Rev. E. S. Smythe, of Oxford, Ala., succeeded Rev. Hillyer February 
16, 1873, and served till January i, 1874. During his pastorate the 
church began the construction of a house. Until they got their house 
ready for use they were kindly given the use of the houses of the Metho- 
dist and Presbyterian brethren. 

February 25, 1874, Rev. C. A. Woodson, of Virginia, took charge, 
and he served until October 25, 1874. In the spring of 1875 Rev. A. J. 
Waldrop, of Jefferson County, agreed to fill the pastorate until a regular 
pastor could be obtained. October 15, 1877, Mr. Waldrop retired, and 
on December 12th following Rev. J. H. Hendon, of Union Springs, Ala., 
became pastor. Up to this time the church was quite small and labored 
under trying adversities, and scarcely attracted any notice in the commu- 
nity. The pastor could do little more than hold the small flock together. 
Mr. Waldrop left the church fairly on the road to success. 



Birmiftg/iant. 227 

Mr. Hendon's salary the first year was ;?500, supplemented by $300 
from the Home Mission Board. His plan was gradually to bring the 
church up, year by year, until they could pay the whole salary, and thus 
become self supporting, and in this he succeeded. He had great faith in 
Birmingham, and yearned over the work most ardently. His physical 
system was not equal to the labor required in this field, and, in 1882, he 
was forced to take a respite. He returned very little improved, and 
resigned November 29, 1884. Loving the work and his people as he did, 
it was with great sorrow of heart that he gave it up, and resigned after 
five years of faithful, successful labor. During his pastorate the church 
enjoyed two most refreshing revivals. The first was in the spring of 1878, 
under Major Penn, of Texas, and his chorister, Mr. Hart. About sixty 
were added to the church, and some of the best members now in this 
church, as well as in the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches, were con- 
verted at the Penn meeting. 

The second was conducted by Rev. D. I. Purser, and his brother, 
Rev. John F. Purser, now pastor of the Baptist Church at Troy, Ala. 
It lasted several weeks and added seventy-seven to the church. Both 
Penn and the Pursers had peculiar, but common-sense methods, both 
drew large audiences, and both left broad and lasting influences in the 
community. 

Rev. D. I. Purser had been elected to act as joint pastor during Mr. 
Hendon's absence, in 1882, and when the latter was forced by ill-health to 
resign, Mr. Purser resigned also, and Rev. Dr. W. O. Bailey, of Texas, 
having been elected, became pastor January i, 1883. Dr. Bailey served 
a little more than one year, when D. I. Purser was again elected pastor, 
and entered upon his work April i, 1884. 

At this time the church had become about two hundred and fifty 
strong, and was able to pay their pastor about ;^i,200 salary, beside mak- 
ing considerable contributions to missions abroad. In 1882 a new house 
was decided upon, and several thousand dollars subscribed, but owing to 
a change in pastors then the matter was dropped. During Dr. Bailey's 
time the new church building was again discussed, but nothing decisive 
was done. 

In 1884 the pastor and church set about in full earnest to have a new 
house. After much discussion it was decided to build upon the old lot, 
and not on the one purchased in 1883. By the spring of 1885 a plan had 
been decided upon, and in the summer of that year the work was begun. 
In the meantime O'Brien's Opera House was rented for one year. At 
the close of 1S85 the church gave up the Opera House. They have been 



2 28 fcjferson Coinify. 

able to worship in the new church since January i, 1886. Through the 
untiring perseverance of Dr. Purser, aided by a number of active brethren 
and sisters, and we should add by Captain C. C. Hardman, superintendent 
of the work of building, the new house was ready for dedication February 
28, 1886 Dr. J. B. Hawthorne, of Atlanta, preached the dedication 
sermon from Romans xiii : 10, "Love is the fulfilling of the law," 
to about eleven hundred people. The house was packed to its fullest 
capacity, and the sermon elicited great enthusiasm. At the close Dr. 
Purser stated that $1,500 was needed "to-morrow " to set the house and 
furniture free from all encumbrance. The amount was raised in a few 
minutes, in contributions of gioo, $50, and $25, and some ;^io, after 
which S237 was raised by the basket collection. A very liberal portion 
of the amount was given by Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, 
and outsiders. It was a grand occasion, a grand success, and led by one 
of the grandest of men, Dr. J. B. Hawthorne. The new church and fur- 
niture complete cost $12,500. 

The year 1885 was marked in the prosperity of the church and church 
work, as in the progress of the city. In addition to the grand work 
just mentioned, three new churches, all the outgrowth of mission work, 
were organized, and are now worshiping in new houses of their own. 

The present membership of this church is now about five hundred, 
the financial strength has been increased in proportion, and the whole is 
better organized for efficient work than ever before. 

The mission stations organized and conducted by the young men of 
the First Baptist Church, in the year 1885, are as follows: 

The South Side Mission was organized into the South Side Baptist 
Church January i, 1886, with Dr. W. C. Cleveland as pastor. The 
church is flourishing, with a membership of seventy-seven. 

The second mission was also organized into a church in the spring of 
1885, with Rev. J. F. Purser as pastor, formerly assistant pastor of the 
First Church. They have a membership of seventeen. 

The West End Mission was organized into a church in the fall of 
1885, with Rev. Mr. Hogan as pastor. They have a membership of 
twenty-three. 

Cotton Mill station has not yet organized into a church, but still 
maintains a flourishing Sunday school. 

The Smithfield Land Company has recently donated them a lot to 
build a church upon, which will be organized at an early day as the Elyton 
Mission, which maintaiiTs a Sunday school. 

At the Avondale Mission a good Sunday school is progressing, and a 




^"Q- byEQWdhsms.e.'Bro'i^evf^-^-"^ 



y J^U^(y(^ 



Birmingham. 

church to be soon erected upon land donated by the Avondale Land Com- 
pany, with Rev. W. A. Hobson as pastor. North Birmingham has also 
donated a lot for a church building, as will doubtless all of the other land 
companies, upon which church buildings will be erected in the coming 
year. 

This work has all been accomplished under the pastorate of Rev. D. 
I. Purser, who has done, perhaps, more for the cause of religion than any 
other man in this section. 

Rev. D.wid Ingram Purser. 

The subject of this sketch Vvas born in Copiah County, Mississippi, 
December 24, 1843. His parents, originally from South Carolina, easily 
traced their ancestry into the active scenes of the Revolutionary War, 
where some of them were distinguished for their deeds of devotion in that 
great struggle. In their westward emigration they sojourned for a year 
or two in Pike County, Alabama, thence on to Mississippi, the native soil 
of our subject. 

Mr. Purser had limited scholastic advantages, but, after his connec- 
tion with neighborhood schools in his native community, at the age of 
sixteen years he entered the high school at Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where 
he spent seven months in diligent application to study. He was reared 
on a farm and in a quiet country home, where the native talent for the 
practical uses of things, the habits of industry, and close attention to 
business were developed and cultivated to a degree which has very greatly 
facilitated the success of his life in other departments of noble effort. 

The next turn in his life worthy of special mention is the fact that he 
entered the Confederate service at the age of seventeen and a half years, 
going to the front with the second company that left his county, ' ' The 
Seven Stars Artillery," a company whose selection of a name was put in 
nomination by himself. He went through the war at his post, and was 
present and participated in sixteen hard-fought engagements. 

In early life, immediately after the war, and before entering the min- 
istry, by his energy and adaptation to business he made an independent 
competency, so that during his whole ministerial career he could have 
lived in sufficient bounty without assistance from a ministerial salary ; but, 
believing that the workman is worthy of his hire, and that Christians 
should be trained to maintain that principle, he has claimed his salary like 
all other true and faithful ministers. 

On a profession of faith in Christ he united with Damascus Baptist 



Jefferson Coiinty. 

Church, in the country near Hazlehurst, at the age of eleven and a half 
years. That church, recognizing his gifts, gave him license to preach the 
gospel in iS68, but, diligently engaged in secular pursuits, he did not act 
upon his license for two years, when the church sent a committee to inform 
him that he must enter the work or surrender his license. After prayer- 
ful reflection he began actively to preach the gospel, and in October, 1870, 
four months after, he was ordained to the full functions of the ministry. 
His first year in the ministry was devoted to missionary work in West 
Mississippi, between Natchez and Port Gibson, a region of seventy-five 
miles. In this mission he constituted three new churches and gathered 
and established four scattered ones. At the end of the year he was pastor 
of seven churches, besides having done much other evangelistic work. 

His next work was rendered as pastor of the churches in Crystal 
Springs and Wesson, Mississippi, two flourishing towns. The ckurch at 
Wesson was a small body when he took charge of it, but it increased with 
great rapidity, and became a very strong church. The church at Crystal 
Springs was not less flourishing. He left that work at the call of the 
State Mission Board of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. 

During his connection with that Board he arose into eminent distinc- 
tion as an evangelist, and pressing demands were laid upon him from other 
States, and in response to these calls he visited and labored with remark- 
able success in most of the principal cities from New Orleans to St. Louis ; 
meanwhile he declined pastoral calls which came from several important 
cities. It was while he was engaged in this succession of brilliant work 
that he made his first visit to Birmingham — a visit which proved a great 
blessing to the cause of his denomination in this city, and won the hearts 
of the Baptist people here. 

In 1883 he was called to the work of State Evangelist by the State 
Mission Board of the Alabama Convention. For twelve months he held 
revival meetings in the cities and centers of influence in our State, which 
were invariably attended with success. 

It was a sublime day for the Baptists of Birmingham when he 
accepted the call of the First Church in this city, and entered on his 
work as their pastor April i, 1884. His church — then the only white 
Baptist Church in the city — had only two hundred and seventy-eight mem- 
bers, was in a state of inefficiency, imperfect organization, and worship- 
ing in an unsightly and uncomfortable house, quite inadequate to hold his 
congregations. 

Mr. Purser seems to have entered this rapidly-growing city with the 
ideas both of pastor and evangelist — as pastor of the First Church and 



Birmingham. 2,^3 

evangelist for the whole city and its environments. He came among us 
with the fixed opinion that church extension is a proper theme for the 
pulpit and a legitimate topic in social visiting and pastoral work. Over 
the Baptist interests of the Magic City he at once became bishop of the 
situation, and knew how to manipulate the responsibilities of his functions. 
His own church has been for a year past worshiping in a magnificent new 
house, modern, elegant, and grand, with capacity to seat nine hundred 
people. His membership now numbers about five hundred. Many have, 
from time to time, gone out to form new churches. The church is a 
wealthy, intelligent, orderly, and thoroughly-organized body, with com- 
mendable liberality, a large congregation, and an excellent Sabbath 
school. While he has thus developed his own church, he has kept in 
constant view his idea of church extension, and as fast as communities 
have formulated around he has inspired the planting of missions and 
Sabbath schools, secured lots for church sites, and, in most of these posi- 
tions, houses have been erected in comfortable chapel form and churches 
have been organized ; and now, instead of one, his denomination has four 
white churches, with efficient pastors, and several promising missions. 
Two of these new churches are now so strong and efficient that they con- 
template building elegant houses at an early day. In addition to his 
active devotion to the cause and his consummate tact, being a man of large 
means and liberality, he is capable of handling men of position and 
means, and this has been used wisely in securing church lots and in erect- 
ing chapels. When this end could not be achieved otherwise he has 
largely used his own money to carry his point. He has had the will, the 
way, and the capacity to do the needed work, and it has not been simply 
talked about — the work has been done and is being done. With all his 
ministerial work faithfully done, he has the gift of manipulating money 
successfully, and, as he rapidly moves along, he takes a turn at that quite 
frequently, and never conceals it. He seems to act on the principle of 
the English bishop, who said: " I am first a man, then a minister ; and, 
however sacred the work of my office, I will not forget that I am a man, 
with the rights of a man." As a preacher in the pulpit he is evangelical, 
clear, instructive, and bold. His subject is placed at once under his 
command, and, with extemporaneous discussion, abounding with appro- 
priate illustrations and eloquent pathos, the subject commands the audi- 
ence. He makes frequent use of current events, and therefore is some- 
times called a sensational preacher, to which he does not hesitate to reply 
that "Sensation is better than stagnation." He has the gift of stirring 
inert things into action, and the adroitness of sweeping along with a reiig- 
14 



234 Jefferson County. 

ious revival or a secular boom. Tall, erect, earnest, pleasing, with excel- 
lent mannerism, addressing himself to all classes and all vocations, he is 
emphatically a man of the people — of all grades of people. 

Mr. Purser has been twice married, and among all the successful 
events of his career these alliances have been the chiefest. On October 7, 
1864, he was married to Miss Dicy Jane Bass, of Covington County, Mis- 
sissippi, a lady of fine person, intellectual, cultivated, brilliant, a devout 
Christian and an earnest worker in the Master's cause, and eminently 
"a keeper at home." To the tact and management of this worthy wife 
of his youth does our subject attribute, in a large degree, his success in life 
as a minister of Christ. She was the mother of six children, three of 
whom have departed this life. She died September 13, 1879. 

His second marriage was with Miss Sallie A. Moody, of Tuscaloosa, 
Alabama, on June 28, 1883. Miss Moody had already reached distinc- 
tion in the higher relations of social life, and that distinction was based on 
family elevation, wealth and cultivation, earnest piety, and active Christian 
enterprise. She was the daughter of Judge Washington Moody, a man 
of noble standing in the city of Tuscaloosa and in the State, and the only 
sister of an only brother, Mr. Frank Moody, now president of the First 
National Bank in that city. Cheerful and graceful everywhere, she is espe- 
cially so in her charming home, where hospitality abounds and good 
nature rules. Her Christian character may be seen in her devout conver- 
sation, generous liberality, and active effort. She is, at this, time in charge 
of a Sabbath-school class of nearly one hundred men, and this energy 
has been true of her work in both Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. She is 
now the mother of two children — a daughter and a son. 

In conclusion, it would be unjust to the distinguished brother of Mr. 
Purser, who worked so long side by side with him, if we should fail to 
mention him ; we refer to the Rev. John F. Purser, for some time mission- 
ary pastor of South Side, now the popular pastor in Troy, Ala.; the 
sweet singer, as well as the gifted preacher, who accompanied the elder 
brother through much of the evangelistic work referred to above, and 
whose sublime songs of Zion charmed the multitude and thrilled the 
Christian hearer. 



Birnimgham. 235 



THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, 

-was organized in February, 1872, on the corner of First avenue and 
Twenty-first street, where now stands Frank Gafford's livery stable, in a 
small wooden building which was erected for a storehouse. The building 
was rented by the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, 
each denomination having service under its own minister. The North Ala- 
bama Conference, which met in November, 1871, did not consider Birming- 
.ham of sufficient importance to send it a preacher for 1872, but stationed 
Rev. T. G. Slaughter at Elyton, the old county seat of Jefferson County, one 
and a half miles distant. Through his kindness we succeeded in getting 
preaching once a month for a while, and the church organized. He 
organized with a membership of about seventy-five. Prominent among 
these were R. H. Roberts. J. D. Lykes, Dr. J. W. Sears, J. T. Wil- 
son, Mrs. M. T. Hines, Mrs. Dr. Sears, Mrs. J. D. Lykes, Mrs. D. F. 
Constantine, and many others. Dr. Slaughter was called away by the 
■bishop, some time in the spring, to take charge of the church at Oxford, 
Alabama, vacated by the death of the appointed pastor, after which time 
we only got preaching as we could catch a preacher on the wing and 
press him into service. Soon after the organization of the church a com- 
mittee was appointed to raise funds to build a house of worship. The 
Elyton Land Company gave us a lot 100 x 190 at the north-east corner of 
Sixth avenue and Twenty-first street, where, by the middle of June, 1872, 
we had erected, what we then considered, a neat and comfortable build- 
ing, at a cost of ^1,600, and it was dedicated by Bishop Doggin in Decem- 
ber, 1872. Our people were then all poor, but I must say I never knew, 
in all my life, a nobler or more liberal band. From $50 to $100 was paid 
by poor men to get the house built. In November, 1872, when the North 
Alabama Conference met, we were sent a regular pastor in the person of 
Rev. T. H. Deavenport. Though very small of stature, yet with a warm 
heart and a big brain, he filled the pulpit with marked success and ability. 
In the summer of 1 873, when the cholera raged, bringing death, desola- 
tion, and suffering in our midst, this man of God was on his feet and on 
his knees, night and day, doing all in his power to help the needy and 
minister to the sick and dying. The millionaires who have invested in 
•and about Birmingham may receive the commendations of the press, but 
Rev. T. H. Deavenport should be held in everlasting remembrance by the 
people of Birmingham. Though the members of our church were all 
poor, they abounded in their liberality, paying from year to year for the 



236 Jefferson County. 

support of the pastor, some $50 and some gioo. In 1874 and 1875 Rev. 
W. L. Clifton was pastor. He was a man of splendid physique and large 
brain, a fine preacher, and an excellent man. Under his charge the 
church prospered. Dr. W. C. Heam was the third pastor, from 1875 to 
1877. Some regarded him a Talmage ; indeed, the doctor is a fine 
preacher and an accomplished gentleman. Under his ministry Birming- 
ham had her first revival. The doctor is now superannuated, in feeble 
health, and resides at Talladega, Alabama. From 1877 to 1881 Dr. J. W. 
Christian served us. He was an able minister, a devout Christian, of sweet 
disposition, and most excellent character. He died in Birmingham as 
editor of the Alabama Christian Advocate. Rev. J. W. Newman served 
the church from 1881 to 1884. Mr. Newman did a fine work for the 
church, both in the pulpit and in his pastoral ministrations. The past two 
years Dr. Hardie Brown has been the pastor. Dr. Brown is one of the 
finest scholars in the South. His sermons are all highly finished, and 
every sentence sparkles with gems of thought. The doctor is doing a fine 
work for the First Church, and is much appreciated by his people. 

When the new church was built the writer was not then a resident of 
Birmingham, having entered the North Alabama Conference as a travel- 
ing minister. The building of the new church was agitated during the 
first year of Dr. Heam's ministry, was continued under the ministry of 
Dr. Christian, and newly completed at the close of his term at a cost of 
about ;g20,ooo. It is situated on the corner of Fourth avenue and Nine- 
teenth street, and is an ornament to the city, but is not large enough to 
accommodate its immense congregation. It has a membership of about 
six hundred, containing many of the wealthiest citizens of Birmingham. 



Rev. Hardie Brown, D. D., 

the present pastor of the First M. E. Church, Soutih, Birmingham, Ala., 
was born in Sumner County, near Gallatin, Tenn. Until seventeen or 
eighteen years of age he worked on his father's farm in the spring and 
summer, going to school for a few months in the fall and winter of each 
year. He obtained his first instruction in the rudiments of a classical 
education at the Gallatin Academy, under the tuition of Professor Mal- 
lory. After an attendance of a session or two there, he was appointed 
assistant for a short time in that institution. He taught a private school 
for one session, after which he entered the Sophomore Class at Cumber- 
land University, Lebanon, Tenn. After graduation he was elected tutor 



Birmingham . 237 

in the preparator\' department of the University, which position he held 
for one collegiate j-ear. He was then offered the place of assistant in the 
Dallas Male Academy at Selma, Ala., which place he held for five 
months. Then succeeding the principal, J. T. Dunklin, he remained at 
the head of this school one year, when he was called to Summerfield, 
Ala., where he taught Greek and Latin in Centennary Institute. He 
remained at Summerfield two years, having married there. He was then 
admitted into the Alabama Conference and sent to the Jonesboro Circuit, 
whence he went into the Confederate army as chaplain of the 28th Ala- 
bama Regiment, and went through the campaign around Corinth, Miss., 
and through Bragg's march into Kentucky. He resigned the chaplaincy 
of that regiment and was sent by the conference to Spring Hill Circuit, in 
Marengo County, Ala. After fulfilling the term of his appointment 
there, he was sent to the Perryville Circuit, but did not fill out the year, 
as he again went into the army, and was captured in the battle of Selma 
and imprisoned for a short time. After the war he was elected principal 
of the Prattville Academy, which position he held two years, afterward 
moving to Mississippi. He was a member of that conference two years. 
He was then transferred to the North Alabama Conference, and stationed 
for three years at Florence. After this pastorate he was elected Professor 
of Ancient Languages at the State Normal School, which position he held 
eight years, and was then elected to succeed Professor S. P. Rice as pres- 
ident of that school. In the meantime he filled the pulpit at Courtland 
for three years, and at Decatur one year. After having held the presi- 
dency of the State Normal School for three years and a half, he resigned, 
and was appointed by Bishop Keener pastor of the First M. E. Church, 
South, at Birmingham. 



ST. JOHN'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, 

corner of Seventeenth street and Avenue E, South Side, was organized by 
Rev. Z. A. Parker, in November, 1884, with eighteen members. A new 
house was built at once, and in twelve months, November, 1885, the 
membership had increased to one hundred and twenty-eight. In Novem- 
ber, 1886, Rev. L. F. Whitten, the present pastor, reported that there 
had been over four hundred accessions in one year, with more than three 
hundred and forty conversions. So that the growth of this young church 
in the past year is almost without precedent in the annals of church history. 
The house is already too small, many hundreds having been unable to get 



238 Jefferson County. 

seats the past fall. This church has built a parsonage for the pastor this 
year at a cost of |1 1,600. A bright future is promised the members of 
St. John's Methodist Church. 

Rev, J. D. Pierce, 

Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church, Birmingham, was born in 
Laurel, Franklin County, Indiana, April 3, 1845. 

In September, 1861, in the sixteenth year of his age, he entered the 
Union army as a musician for the term of three years, the last two of 
which he was principal musician of his regiment. 

In November, 1864, after three years and two months' service, he 
was honorably discharged and returned home to engage in the peaceful 
pursuits of life. 

In October, 1865, he, with his father's family, removed to Shelby ville, 
Indiana, to take charge of the leading hotel of that city. In the following 
January he was converted and united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
his parents being members of the Presbyterian Church. In February he 
began the study of medicine with W. F. Green, M. D. , of the same city, 
and in the fall attended his first course of lectures in Chicago. He 
attended his second course of lectures in Cincinnati, where he graduated 
in February, 1870. 

He practiced medicine five years, during which time he achieved con- 
siderable success in the treatment of chronic rheumatism, having cured' 
cases of from two to forty years standing. 

During the time he was engaged in medicine, his friends, as well as 
himself, were impressed that he ought to enter the ministry. But as his 
prospects for succe.'ss in his chosen profession were very bright it was with 
great reluctance that he gave up medicine for the ministry. Becoming 
satisfied, however, that it was his duty to try to preach the gospel, he, 
upon the recommendation of his presiding elder and quarterly conference, 
was received on trial in the traveling connection by the South-East Indiana 
Conference at Madison, Indiana, Bishop Foster presiding. In September, 
1875, after serving in that conference six years and a half, on account of 
the health of himself and wife, he transferred to this State and settled at 
Andrew's Institute, DeKalb County, May, 1882. In November of that 
year he was appointed to the Wills Valley Circuit near his home. 

At the close of 1883 he was stationed at the First Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in Birmingham. During the time he served this charge, 
nearly two years, his labors were greatly blessed. ^ 



P>ir7ningkam. 239 

From September, 1885, to 1886, he was stationed in Spirit Lake, Iowa, 
but as the climate disagreed with his family he returned to Alabama and 
was appointed by Bishop Fowler to succeed Rev. L. H. Massey (who 
succeeded him the previous year) as pastor of the First Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in Birmingham. 

Mr. Pierce's wife is a daughter of the late Col. James H. Grant, the 
builder and resident engineer of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, 
and cousin to Captain John A. Grant, who recently resigned the position 
of chief engineer of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad 
to become the general manager of the Texas Pacific. 



THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORTH. 

The building stands on the corner of Nineteenth street and Avenue 

C. It is a neat, framed structure, gothic in style, and located in the cen- 
tral part of that side of the city. Its first pastor was Rev. J. B. Tope, 
under whose administration it was erected in 1881, and dedicated by the 
Rev, I. W. Joyce, D. D., of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the same year. In it 
two sessions of the Alabama Conference have been held, the first by 
Bishop Matthew Simpson, D. D., LL. D., in 1881, and the second by 
Bishop J. M. Walden, D. D., LL. D., in 1884. Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, 

D. D., and Bishop W. F. Mallahin, D. D., have also preached from its 
pulpit. It has been served as pastors by the Revs. J. B. Tope, E. H. 
King, W. P. Miller, J. D. Pierce and L. H. Massey. At its altars many 
have been converted, and following their denominational preferences have 
gone into other communions, while others have united with it, according 
to the law of the denomination, on a probation of six months before 
taking its vows, and during the time, proving unfaithful, have been dropped 
without admission into full connection ; while still others, proving faithful, 
have, from time to time, been received, both from probation and by letter. 
Thus the growth of its membership has been slow but substantial, and 
after losing many by removals and tran.sfers, it now numbers one hundred 
and fourteen full members and probationers. It has a live Sunday school, 
which meets at 9.30 a. m., has preaching Sunday morning and evening, 
prayer-meeting on Wednesday evenings, and a weekly class-meeting, which 
services are all well attended by its members and friends. The Rev. L. 
H. Massey is its present pastor. He is a young man, a native of North 
Carolina ; was graduated in East Tennessee Wesleyan University (now 



240 Jefferson County. 

Grant Memorial), in 1880, and after one year as a professor in Holston 
Seminary, in Tennessee, and five years in the pastorate, he was transferred 
to the Alabama Conference, and sent to Birmingham, in November, 1885. 
Under his labors the memberhip has been considerably increased, and a 
new church has been established in the western part of the city, and on the 
corner of Ninth street and Third avenue, North Side, stands the 



SECOND METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

a handsome, framed building, just starting on its journey of usefulness and 
mission of purity and love. The erection of this structure is largely due 
to the labors of Rev. C. W. Miller, as assistant to the pastor in the latter 
part of 1886. It stands, the only church building in that part of the city, 
in the midst of a growing population, and has before it a hopeful future. 



THE CHURCH OF DISCIPLES, OR CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 

was organized in this city in April, 1885, by R. W. Van Hook, the State 
evangelist of said church, with a membership of twenty men and women. 

Previous to this time a small number of earnest, energetic women 
had been striving for several months to keep up a small Sunday school. 
Owing to much opposition and many discouragements they had found this 
exceedingly difficult, and but for the indefatigable efforts of our dear 
deceased sister, Mrs. A. J. Clarkson, and her warm coadjutors, Mrs. J. P. 
Tillman and Mrs. Levi Hege, it would have been an unsuccessful effort. 
But trusting — as such women do trust — in a Higher Power for help, they 
succeeded in keeping together the small band in this progressive city, who 
chose to wear the name of Christ alone, and to take the Bible as their 
only guide, creed or doctrine. There is not a member of the Church of 
Christ in this city but feels his heart glow with love and gratitude to Mrs. 
Clarkson for her untiring efforts to effect an organization — her zeal and 
encouragement when others were almost discouraged. She has already 
received her reward in her Master's commendation. Feeling that her 
place could scarcely be refilled, all felt the necessity of redoubling their 
eftbrts, and the Lord has blessed them. 

In April, 1885, Mr. R. W. Van Hook, then of Greene County, 
knowing of their weak condition, came to their relief He held a meet- 



Birnihighain. 241 

ing, which resulted in much encouragement to all. It was at this time 
that the organization was effected. For some time after their organiza- 
tion this small body of Christians met in Sublett Hall, "and continued 
steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, 
and in prayers." 

We give some names of charter members, viz : Messrs. C. Perkins, 
Harry Harsh, J. E. Lee, Henry Brown, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. A. J. Clark- 
son, Mrs. J. P. Tillman, Mrs. Levi Hege, Mrs. Boone, Misses Palmer, 
AUie Boyer, and Mamie Jolly. 

They were all earnest, warm workers, and in spite of many trials, 
never wearied in their united effort to do for their Lord and Master by 
prayer, faith, and works, all their capacity and earnestness enabled them 
to do. 

Being unable to keep Sublett Hall, for some reason of its owner, 
they succeeded in getting the consent of the officers of the Young Men's 
Christian Association to use their reading room until they could make 
other arrangements. They met here till December, 1885, when they 
obtained use of tiie courtroom, where they are, at present, holding their 
Lord's-day services. 

Their financial condition is fairly good. They have purchased a lot, 
and have almost sufficient money to begin building their house of worship, 
which, Lord willing, they will do this spring of 1887. 

In addition to purchasing the lot, and the building fund, they have, 
since October, 1886, arranged to pay the State evangelist for half his time, 
leaving the other half for State work. Their membership has increased 
from twenty to about one hundred, including many of the most prominent 
business men in the city. 

They have a progressive Sunday school, with Messrs. G. R. Harsh 
and Chick as superintendents, and with energetic teachers and wide-awake 
pupils. The Sunday school numbers about sixty pupils, and all are much 
interested. 

A mission school has been organized in Avondale, with C. A. 
Schoolar as superintendent, and is in quite a flourishing condition. 

In January a day was appointed for a meeting to organize a Ladies' 
Aid Society. Some time since the younger members of the Sunday 
school were organized into a society under the name of "Little Builders." 

We are happy to state that both church and Sunday school are in 
a prosperous condition. 



242 Jefferson County. 



CONGREGATION EMMANUEL. 

The Jewish inhabitants of Birmingham are among its most substan- 
stial trades people. They appear in works of general interest to society, 
and in the city government, with marked influence. Their religious 
organization dates from April 23, 1882, when the Congregation Emmanuel 
was organized with thirty-two members, and without a rabbi. The meet- 
ings of the congregation were held irregularly in various churches of the 
city loaned for the purpose. 

The effort was finally made to build a synagogue, and the beautiful 
brick structure, corner Fifth avenue and Seventeenth street, was begun 
June, 1886, to cost $12,000 to $15,000. The present membership is 
eighty-five. 

No regular offices from a rabbi have thus far been obtained, although 
Dr. Rosenpitz officiated for four months in the latter part of 1886. 

The board of trustees are Samuel Ullman, A. S, Hirscher, B. M. 
Jacobs, H. Lazarus, E. Gusfield, A. Stern, S. Spiro, J. R. Hochstadter,. 
of which Mr. Hirscher is president. 



COLORED BAPTIST CHURCH. 

This is a brick edifice, erected on Sixteenth street and Seventh ave- 
nue, and an imposing style of ecclesiastical architecture. 

Rev. W. R. Pettiford is the pastor, and the church is in a highly 
prosperous condition. Mr. Pettiford has retained his charge since Jan- 
uary 15, 1883, and under him the present beautiful church building has 
almost been completed. The history of the church building is one of 
honor to the pastor and his people. With only ^$300 in the treasury they 
went on with laying the foundations, and step by step, with hard work 
and grievous delays, accomplished their purpose. The church has cost 
$6,000, and will, when fully completed, cost $8,500. The lot is worth 
$10,000, or better. There are about 400 members of this church, and 
four stations are also conducted by it. 




2 




^^. 




.C-< 



Birmingham. 245 



COLORED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES. 

These are prosperous religious bodies. One edifice is of brick, the 
others are frame. All are well kept, and attended by orderly congrega- 
tions. Services are regularly held. 

There are other colored churches in the city which do honor to the 
negro race. They are owned by their congregations, and are mostly out 
of debt. They occupy lots in the central parts of the city, and are orna- 
mental to the general architecture. 



JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The spirit of public education is greatly promoted in this county by 
the activity of the county superintendent, Mr. S. L. Robertson, a native 
of Huntsville, Ala., and an ex-Confederate soldier. The State law 
increased his salary recently in appreciation of his fidelity and efficiency. 

There are both common and high schools embraced in the system. 
The high schools teach the subjects necessary to prepare youths for college. 

At present the cost of white schools is sustained, to the extent of one- 
third, by the State and county funds ; the colored schools to the extent of 
two-thirds. 

The common schools receive a greater pro rata of the public fund 
than the high schools. The public funds at present only allow for main- 
taining the schools for three months in the year. The supplemental, or 
private, fund must be relied on for the remainder of the time. 

The teachers are faithful, and the system is progressive. "^ 



CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The value of school buildings, and other school property, in Birming- 
ham is probably $75,000. A direct appropriation is made by the city 
government, which relieves pupils of all tuition fees. The schools, 
therefore, are entirely free. The wealthy classes send their children to 
receive instruction from them, and thus parents, who themselves are 
educated, and who have leisure to watch the interest of their children, 
become the guardians of the common schools. Both moral and intel- 
lectual training is enforced, and the schools are an honor to the city. 



246 Jefferson County. 

The public school organization is composed of a board of education. 
The city government does not control it. The board elects a superin- 
tendent and the necessary teachers, and performs all other acts of 
administration, except fixing the amount of income to be expended. 

The board is now composed of the following influential citizens and 
patrons of the schools: A. O. Lane, President; J. L. Watkins, Vice- 
President; A. S. Elliott, W. J. Rushton, D. D. Smith, Samuel Ullman, 
and George L. Thomas. City Clerk H. U. McKinney is ex officio 
Secretary of the Board. 

Professor J. H. Phillips is Superintendent. He is an enthusiast in his 
profession, and is intelligent in the direction of the most modern methods 
in the schools. 

The race division is adopted in the system. The colored schools have 
colored teachers. The most careful supervision is given to them by the 
board and by the superintendent. 

An interesting feature of the system pursued by Professor Phillips is 
the division of the scholastic session by special celebrations. " Shaks- 
peare Day," "Burns Day," etc., are respectively dedicated to observance 
of the memory of the dead poets, historians, and the like. " Arbor Day " 
has been fixed for Washington's birthday, and upon this occasion the 
schools will annually unite in planting trees in the public parks, and other 
proper places. 

The schools, after being graded and located, have been named in 
honor of eminent citizens of the city : "Powell School," for James R. 
Powell, the founder of the city ; " Henley School," for Robert H. Henley, 
the first mayor ; "Paul Hayne School," for the Southern poet. One of 
the colored schools is named, in honor of the mayor, "Lane School." 

The number of pupils enrolled in all the schools January i, 1887, was 
about 2, 100, of which, say, 700 were colored. 



THE BANKS OF BIRMINGHAM. 

A commercial observation respecting Birmingham has always been 
the rapid, though steady, progress of the merchants and the smaller 
manufacturers. The city is annually acquiring increased importance as a 
distributive center for a varied trade. Its wholesale transactions cover 
every year greater territory than the year before. The city wholesale 
trade has made possible a score of villages with their retail and bartering 
commerce with farmers, mechanics, and miners. Values of all kinds 



Birmingham. 247 

appreciate under this network of enterprise, and the channel through 
which the whole of this trade flows is the banks of the city. We will see 
that these institutions have steadily grown in number, and yet relatively 
more in ability. This fact is readily accounted for in the steady and 
upward course of the trade of the merchants. In these facts is the 
unmistakable evidence that the commerce of Birmingham has been free 
from feverish excitement at all times ; that it has received no shocks from 
over-trading, or from dishonor among merchants. The tens of thousands 
of dollars, in small amounts of cash, paid out weekly to laborers who live 
in and near the city, and who spend it freely, go to the banks through the 
stores. In this progress we have the indice to the future of the banks of 
the city. They are the aids to an industrial life whose sources arc both 
of the strongest in resource and of the most varied and the most readily con- 
vertible. Thus far the pig-iron industry and coal have supplied the main 
commerce. But there are developments already assured which will 
diversify the business of the city, and add to the safety of the trade and 
the banks. Many kinds of iron and steel manufactures from Birmingham 
pig-iron will enter commerce, and this commerce will be as solvent as the 
solvency of communities in every part of the Union, and ultimately of 
the Central and South American States. 

Besides the iron manufactures in bridges, chains, piping, stoves, 
railroad rails, engines, etc., which support healthy commerce, the Birming- 
ham trade will be largely based on cotton, to come from various parts of 
Alabama and Mississippi, attracted here by the compress and facilities for 
market. The completion of the railroads from Columbus, Miss., and 
Memphis and Sheffield to the north ; and the completion of the line, almost 
an air line, to connect with the roads in Georgia leading to Savannah, will 
open the shortest rail communication possible between the Mississippi and 
the Atlantic. 

Thus it is evident that the future of banking in Birmingham is com- 
mensurate in promise with all the wonderfully-varied and equally-powerful 
resources of the surrounding country. Stagnation of business can never 
overtake a country where the climate is never too cold or too hot to forbid 
a full day's work ; where crops may be planted upon the open fields every 
month in the year; where the ores of Red Mountain and the coke of 
Pratt Mines are in less than a half day's time of the magnificent prairies 
on one side, and that land of matchless fertility and beauty on the other,, 
the Valley of the Tennessee. 



248 Jefferson County. 



Charles Linn. 

The banking interest of Birmingham, now amounting to about one 
• and a half million of dollars, has in the subject of this sketch its founder. 

Born of Swedish parents, in Finland, he passed for thirty years an 
eventful career on the sea, from cabin boy to captain of his vessel, during 
which time he crossed the Atlantic sixty-four times, and made three trips 
around the world. 

Emigrating to America in 1836, he was engaged in various mercan- 
tile pursuits until 1840, when he engaged in the wholesale mercantile 
•trade in Montgomery, where he established one of the most successful 
business houses in the South. During the war he disposed of his busi- 
ness and attempted to run the blockade with a vessel, but was captured, 
and taken, as a prisoner, to New York, where he was paroled. Subse- 
quent to the war he became the financier of Messrs. Flash, Lewis & Co., 
wholesale grocers, of New Orleans, his son, C. W. Linn, having an 
interest in the firm, with whom he remained until the death of his son 
in 1 87 1. In the same year he came to Birmingham, and purchased from 
the Elyton Land Company the lot on which the First National Bank 
now stands. The property was 50x100 feet, and the price paid was 
;?400. The Elyton Land Company presented him with a lot 20x100 
feet on 20th street adjoining, and upon it Mr. Linn erected the first bank 
building in Birmingham, at a cost of ^4,000. He immediately organized 
the First National Bank. It was incorporated under the name of the 
-National Bank of Birmingham, with Mr. Linn as President. 

Keen of perception, and quick to recognize the future greatness of 
his adopted home, he erected, in 1872-73, the handsome and substantial 
structure now known as the First National Bank Building, at a cost of 
$2,6,000, at that period one of the most elaborate and costly in Northern 
Alabama. Standing alone in its greatness, it was the mark of ridicule, 
and was long known under the sobriquet of " Linn's Folly." To-day it 
is the best business corner in Birmingham ; the center of the vast com- 
•mercial interests of the city, and is valued at not less than $200,000. 

In all enterprises tending to promote and advance the interests of 
Birmingham Mr. Linn was one of the leaders. He organized the Linn 
Iron Works, manufacturing as heavy machinery as any constructed south 
of the Ohio River; was greatly interested in developing the mineral wealth 
of Alabama, sending experts to analyze and examine the different coal and 
iron deposits, and assisted in building the first coke ovens. 



Bh'iningham. 249 

He was one of the first stockholders of the Elyton Land Company, 
and firm in the faith of the great future of Birmingham he was a large 
investor in real estate. 

Mr. Linn was a Lutheran in his religious belief, but was charitable 
to all denominations, and a liberal donator to all good works. 

His name will always be honored as one who did all in his power to 
lay the city of Birmingham upon a broad and substantial foundation. 

Mr. Linn was married three times, and has four children now living: 
Edward W., Cashier of the First National Bank; Mrs. Ellen L. Watts, 
widow of T. H. Watts, who was a business man of Birmingham ; Mrs. 
A. L. Henley, wife of John C. Henley, and Mrs. L. L. Scott, widow 
of W. L. Scott, a popular citizen of Birmingham, who was drowned in 
1885, while on a pleasure trip to Florida. 

Mr. Linn died August 7, 1882, aged sixty-eight years. 

The National Bank. 

Mr. Charles Linn was a man of clear judgment. He came to 
Birmingham in its early days to fix his fortunes here. On Twentieth 
street he reared a building for a bank. This was in the summer of 1871. 
The National Bank of Birmingham was organized October, 1871. The 
incorporators were Charles Linn, James R. Powell, President of the 
Elyton Land Company and Mayor of the city, Bryant Tully, M. H. 
Jordan, Willis J. Milner, James O'Connor, and B. P. Worthington, with 
a paid-up capital of $50,000. 

The oiTficers elected were Charles Linn, President ; James R. Powell, 
Vice-President ; Travers Daniel, Cashier. After a year's service Mr. 
Daniel resigned his position, and Robert B. Jones was elected to fill it. 
After three years Mr, Jones resigned, and William Berney was given the 
place. After seven years service Mr. Berney was elected President to 
fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the founder and first president, 
Mr. Linn. W. L. Scott became Vice-President, and John C. Henley 
Cashier. 



250 Jefferson County. 



The City Bank. 

T. L. Hudgins, Josiah Morris, and W. S. Mudd organized a private 
banking establishment in April, 1880, with a capital of ^80,000. It was 
soon chartered as the City Bank of Birmingham, with T. L, Hudgins, 
President, and W. J. Cameron, Cashier, and the capital increased to 
;? 1 00, 000. 

The First National. 

May 15, 1884, the City Bank was merged into the First National. 
The consolidated capital stock controlled by the latter institution, under 
the terms of consolidation, was ^250,000. William Berney was retained 
as President; John C. Henley became Vice-President; W. J. Cameron, 
Cashier, with E. W. Linn, Assistant Cashier. 

The bank greatly prospered with the acquisition of new capital. March, 
1885, President Berney sent in his resignation. William A. Walker, Jr., 
a member of the leading law firm of the city, a native of the vicinage, 
and a large stockholder in the bank, was elected to succeed Mr. Berney. 
The able cashier, however, was expected practically to act the part of 
president. Mr. Walker could not surrender his practice, to which he was 
devoted, not only from affection for the science of law, but because of 
its rich gains to him in fortune. Cashier Cameron proved to be fully 
equal to the place. Mr. Walker soon discovered that his extensive legal 
clientele frequently imposed duties upon him at the bar inconsistent 
with his position as president of a Birmingham bank. Therefore, on 
January 6, 1886, the next annual meeting of the stockholders, he 
tendered his resignation as president to the directory, and Cashier 
Cameron was unanimously elected to fill his place by rank, as he had done, 
for some months, by assignment of duties to be performed. In this 
reorganization of bank officers W. J. Cameron became President; J. C. 
Henley Vice-President; E. W. Linn Cashier, and T. O. Smith, a son of 
the owner of Smithfield, Assistant Cashier. 

The present directors are : T. L. Hudgins, William A. Walker, Jr., 
H. M. Caldwell, P. H. Earle, T. T. Hillman, W. T. Underwood, W. J. 
Cameron, John C. Henley, and E. W. Linn. 

The offices of the First National Bank of Birmingham are now the 
best arranged and the most handsomely furnished in the State. 



BirtninghLxm. 253 



Condensed Statement of the Condition of the First National Bank, December 
31, 1886. 

RESOURCES. 

Loans and discounts 111,255,980 03 

Overdrafts 55, 802 40 

United States bonds 50,000 00 

Other stocks and bonds 66, 230 00 

Real estate, furniture and fixtures 52,573 84 

Expenses and taxes 11.341 40 

Premiums 10,750 oo 

Due from United States Treasury 4,632 75 

Due from banks 433,298 92 

Cash 279,227 03 

$2,219,836 37 

LIABILITIES. 

Capital stock $250,000 00 

Surplus and profits 78,093 94 

Circulation 45,000 00 

Deposits — 

Banks $ 63,097 90 

Individual 1,783,644 53 — 1,846,742 43 

$2,219,836 37 

At a meeting of the board of directors held this day, a dividend of 
6 per cent, was declared from the earnings of the past six months, paya- 
ble January 4, 1887. E. W. Linn, Cashier. 

The Alabama National Bank. 

The Alabama State Bank was organized in April, 1884, with Joseph 
F. Johnston, President; T. B. Lyons, Vice-President; John W. Read, 
Cashier. The Board of Directors were J. T. Hardie, T. B. Lyons, E. 
W. Rucker, A. O. Lane, J. W. Sloss, Joseph A. Shakespeare, and 
Joseph F. Johnston. The capital stock paid in was $200,000. The 
bank doubled its first six months of business in the following six months. 
In less than eighteen months it was paying 16 per centum per annum 
on its capital. 

In January, 1887, the corporation increased its capital stock, paid in. 



2 54 Jefferson County. 

to 11500,000, and thus became the largest bank in the State. The name 
was then changed to the Alabama National Bank. It is honorable to the 
business integrity of Birmingham that the increase was made, on the recom- 
mendation of the president, because of the success of the previous aid given 
by the bank " to business men and manufacturers." It was further to aid 
these classes that the advice was accepted. Among the new stockholders 
who promptly subscribed to the increased capital are Josiah Morris, of 
Montgomery ; Mr. Norton, President of the L. & N. Railroad system ; 
Mr. Fetter, President of the Kentucky National Bank of Louisville ; Mr. 
Johnston, President of the First National Bank of Columbus, Mississippi ; 
Mr. Spurr, President of the Commercial National Bank of Nashville, and 
other bankers of national reputation. 

The corporation owns its own handsome building at the corner of 
First avenue and Twentieth street. 

Joseph F. Johnston, the president of this bank, is a native of Lin- 
coln County, North Carolina, where he was born in 1843, ^^he son of a 
gentleman of wealth and culture. In his seventeenth year he left his 
educational advantages to enlist in the ranks of the Confederate army. 
Five wounds and promotion to a captaincy attest the devotion of his sol- 
dier's career. 

Coming to Alabama Captain Johnston read law, and soon formed a 
co-partnenship with a young North Carolinian, Captain R. M. Nelson, 
who had also been a Confederate soldier. Captain Nelson is now president 
of the Commercial Bank of Selma, and a gentleman of distinguished influ- 
ence in social and business circles. 

Mr. Johnston has been long known as a faithful worker in the poli- 
tics of Alabama. He was chairman of the Democratic State Executive 
Committee in a trying period, and distinguished himself in that position. 
He has been invited to allow his name to be used for succession to the 
gubernatorial office in Alabama, but he has not thus far been ready to 
accept political preferment. 

Mr. Johnston is now president of the Sloss Iron and Manufacturing 
Company of Birmingham, with a capital stock of ^3, 000, 000. 

The Jefferson County Savings Bank. 

The erection of this bank presents a typical example of individual 
experience in Birmingham. It is the result of the prosperity of an honest 
man who began at the foot of the ladder of fortune. Charles Enslen, the 
founder, came to Birmingham a stranger and a day laborer. He is a Ger- 




^da7^^ /^^/y^^^^ 



Birmingham. 257 

man by birth. Fidelity to the small things given him to do established 
his character in a community whose judgments of men and their methods 
and motives hew to the line. Mr. Enslen made fortunate investments, 
and used the suggestions of discretion, and a quick and sagacious mind, to 
detect opportunities for the employment of his earnings. Soon he had 
accomplished independence. Like the prudent head of a family, he first 
provided for them a comfortable home. His means grew to proportions 
which required his whole attention to the management of them. Thus, in 
casting about for some large enterprise to employ them, he fixed upon the 
then great need of the city in which he had cast his lot — a savings bank. 
He bought a lot in 1885 on the corner of Second avenue and Twenty-first 
street for ^7,500, which three or four years before had been sold for ^350. 
The location was a central one, convenient to the industries which entiploy 
the working people. Upon the spot he built a four-story brick building 
with Mansard roof, the lower floor being devoted to the bank offices. 
The proprietor of the enterprise remained steadily all day among the work- 
men directing in person the excavations for the foundation and the laying 
of every brick. His work progressed somewhat tardily, as the passers-by 
noted, but in due time he had completed a beautiful building, and one 
acknowledged to be, at that time, the most substantial in the city. 

The bank was chartered November 2, 1885, with a capital stock, 
owned by the founder, of 5SO,ooo. It threw open its doors to a prosper- 
ous business long awaiting it. 

The incorporators were Charles F. Enslen and his two sons, E. F. and 
Charles Enslen. 

The officers have been, from the opening, Charles F. Enslen, Presi- 
■dent ; E. F. Enslen, Cashier, and Robert H. Sterrett, Attorney at Law, 
attorney for the bank. 

In January, 1887, this bank increased its capital stock to ^150,000 — 
threefold in fourteen months. 

The Berney National Bank. 

Upon the retirement of Mr. Berney from the presidency of the First 
National, he organized, on March 26, 1885, the Central Bank, with a capi- 
tal stock, paid up, of ^50,000. 

This bank is situated on First avenue, between Nineteenth and Twen- 
tieth streets. It is an extremely tasteful architectural design, and adds 
greatly to the effect of the avenue. It is built of pressed brick, orna- 
mented with white stone. The front is chiefly plate glass. The building, 



258 Jefferson County. 

and necessary space around, it only occupied half of the lot bought by Mr. 
Berney when he began to prepare to build the bank. In less than a year 
from the date of the purchase of the lot he sold the half, not required for 
the bank, for as much money as the entire area had cost. 

The incorporators of the Central Bank were William Berney, Robert 
Jemison, L. D. Aylett, Joseph McLester, and T. H. Aldrich. The char- 
ter was obtained, and the bank began business on the date above men- 
tioned. 

The business of this institution has gone forward by bounds. In nine 
months from the date of incorporation it had doubled its capital stock. 
The bank was then reorganized and the name changed from the Central 
Bank of Birmingham to the Berney National Bank. The officers chosen 
were William Berney, President ; Robert Jemison, Vice President ; J. B. 
Cobbs, Cashier, and W. P. G. Harding, Assistant Cashier. 

In less than twelve months from this first reorganization, with double 
the original capital stock, the Berney National had the second time 
increased. Its capital stock now is ;?300,000, or sixfold the original capi- 
tal stock — this accomplished in less than two years from its foundation. 
These facts become notable in view of the rapid strides real estate has 
made in Birmingham. It is evident that there has thus far been nothing 
fictitious or perilous in the phenomenal advance in values. They have 
moved in general accord and universal sympathy. 

The officers of the Berney National Bank in its latest reorganization 
are William Berney, President ; W. P. Armstrong, President of the City 
National Bank of Selma, one of the oldest and strongest of the Southern 
banks of the new era, Vice-President ; J. B. Cobbs, Cashier, and W. P. 
Parish, of Selma, Assistant Cashier. Among the larger stockholders in 
the reorganization are John H. Inman, of New York ; W. P. Armstrong, 
of Selma; Enoch Ensley, of Pratt Mines; H. F. DeBardeleben, R. H. 
Isbell, of Talladega; T. T. Hillman, P. T. Vaughan, of Selma, and others. 

The confidence which the Berney National Bank has been able to 
arrest and attract to the city of its location is of the first consequence. It 
has done its full part toward creating stability in values, even when they 
advance rapidly from point to point. 




/ r .^^^:%«;^j55'-f-;<j9^-^^*?'-^«'^-'' 




Birmingham. 261 



The Birmingham National Bank. 

This institution will be incorporated in April, 1887, with a paid-up 
capital of $250,000, subscribed by nearly one hundred of the leading busi- 
ness men of Birmingham. 

The President is to be John W. Read ; Cashier, H. C. Ansley. It 
will occupy handsome quarters in the Roden Block, Second avenue and 
Twentieth street. 

The banks and banking capital of Birmingham, March 1, 1887, may 
be summarized as follows: 

First National r;ip;tai, 5250,000 

Alabama National " 500,000 

Savings . . . , " 150,000 

Berney National " 300,000 

Birmingham National " 250,000 

J. R. Adams, private banker " 50,000 

Total banking capital $1,500,000 



SUBURBAN LAND COMPANIES. 

AvoNDALE Land Company. — One of the leading incentives to the 
construction of the first in order of the Birmingham street railways was 
to connect a suburb called Avondale with the center of Birmingham. 
The distance is about one and a half miles. The principal incorporators 
of this railway company comprise the Avondale Land Company. 

Avondale Park consists of a forty-acre inclosure of romantic wooded 
mountain side, abounding in bold springs. There are walks laid off, seats 
provided, and a floor for dancing, laid under a canopy. There is a natural 
cave on the company's property of much interest. Picnics and moonlight 
parties from the city delight to patronize its free accommodations. 

The company has purchased considerable land around the park, sur- 
veyed lots, and has been very successful in disposing of them to settlers 
and manufacturers. Land which did not cost it more than $1, or even 
half that amount, per foot, is now readily sold at $25 to $75, or into the 
hundreds, three years after the original purchase. The stock of the com- 
pany is held at $4.25 to ?5 to one, face value. 

The president is B. F. Roden. 



262 Jefierson Coiatty. 

Smithfield. — West of Birmingham city limits, one and a half miles 
down the valley, is the suburban village, Smithfield. The area comprises 
500 acres, once a cornfield. Bordering the valley part is a narrow line 
of hills, yet in the scrubby growth of a virgin and rocky soil. 

Three years ago the owner of this tract of land, Dr. Joseph R. Smith, 
decided to lay it off, after a plan of his own fertile brain, into streets and 
avenues, and to offer lots for sale and settlement. It was found that good 
water could be obtained by sinking wells into the rocks, beneath the sur- 
face, from twenty-five to seventy-five feet deep. So long as the territory 
should remain sparsely inhabited, these wells would supply suitable water. 
When residences should be erected on lots, not too far apart, one well 
would readily supply several families. The breezes from the mountains 
fanned Smithfield, and in the hottest day the wide expanse of open area on 
every side secured a current of pure, fresh air. A wholesome draught of 
pure water, not dangerous to health, as is ice, but cool and refreshing 
from the rocks beneath, was at command of the cottagers at all hours. 

Smithfield assumed a color of romance from the first. It is a solid 
name it bears. It means an honest purpose in every feature. Coming to 
the broad avenues and streets, we find them called after the names of the 
living, or dead. Smiths. Here in Birmingham we go to the arithmetic, with 
its hard figures for the most unromantic of nomenclature for our high- 
ways. But the highways of the suburban town went to the family tree 
of the Smiths, and immortalized genealogy by fixing its record in the 
map of a city. 

The founder of Smithfield determined upon this unique scheme for 
perpetuating family history. The avenues were laid off from due east to 
due west, and these he named for the female members of the Smith family 
backward into the generations, to cover as many names as there were 
highways. Therefore we have Cornelia, Louisa, Kate, Sallie, etc., ave- 
nues. The streets crossing the avenues at right angles are John, Thomas, 
Mortimer, etc. The eastern border of the limits is a wide boulevard called 
Walker street. This is named for Mr. William A. Walker, one of the 
early settlers of Jefferson County, and of Elyton, and a life-time friend of 
Dr. Smith. Bisecting this site of the town is a wide, macadamized pub- 
lic highway, running with the compass from east to west, which is called 
Smithers' boulevard, in honor of the founder's wife's maiden name. 

The sale of Smithfield lots began soon after the old cornfield had been 
laid off into streets and avenues, which had received their names to the 
honor of the family record of the founder. In order to convince the 
public of his own confidence in the future of his city-building project. Dr. 



Birmingham. 263 

Smith laid off on the opposite side of Walker avenue, and therefore 
nearer the city, a wide and beautiful oblong drive. The track was well 
shaded by the forest growth, and graded at heavy cost to himself The 
interior of the ground was cleared of undergrowth, which left hundreds 
of shade trees, under which, it was predicted, the spring and summer pic- 
nics of the school children would be held. The whole was surrounded 
by a substantial plank fence, kept whitewashed, and broken by gates for 
the entrance of vehicles on both the Birmingham and Smithfield sides. 

Liberal advertising of Smithfield claims, to the attention of investors, 
soon brought them to close important transactions in its lots. Year by 
year and season by season the prices of Smithfield lots rose higher. 
From 5ioo they went to $500. The location seemed favorable to real 
estate speculators. It lay between the great Pratt Mines to the north and 
their several furnaces, in course of construction. On the same side, but 
nearer to Smithfield, was the very strong Pioneer Mining and Manufactur- 
ing Company, busily opening mines and building blast furnaces; this 
latter being the property of the wealthy Pennsylvanians, theThomases. 
To the west, four miles away, was Oxmoor, a growing iron manufacturing 
village. To the east was Birmingham and the banks, and the juncture 
of nine or more lines of railroad. It seemed plain to the quick eye of 
the real estate speculator that in this property lay opportunity for his 
safest ventures, even in the season of the most energetic "booms" of 
Birmingham. 

Smithfield Land Company. — Thus it happened that in the first few 
days of December, 1886, a syndicate was quietly formed of leading capi- 
talist of Birmingham, who bought about 200 acres of Smithfield at about 
$1,200 the acre. The company was organized as the Smithfield Land 
Company, and the stock was all sold, immediately, to many eager pur- 
chasers. 

The board of directors are A. O. Lane, Mayor of Birmingham, J. D. 
Moore, J. V. Richards, C. H. Worrell, E. A. Thompson, W. A. Smith, 
and W. A. Handley. A. O. Lane is President, and L. H. Martin Secre- 
tary and Treasurer. The capital stock of the Smithfield Land Company 
is $850,000. 

North Birmingham Land Company. — This very strong corporation 
has located a town two miles north of Birmingham, on Village Creek. 
Its realty consists of some twelve hundred acres favorably situated for 
manufactories. It is now erecting a blast furnace of one hundred tons 



264 Jefferson County. 

capacity. The streets and avenues have been very judiciously laid off 
with a view to placing the manufacturing industries of the future on the 
low lands bordered by the stream, and the residences of the population 
upon the adjacent high lands. 

John W. Johnston, President of the Georgia Pacific Railroad, is 
President of the company, and his brother, A. B. Johnston, is the Secre- 
tary and Treasurer. The capital stock of the company is ,$700,000. 

The Village Creek Land Company. — This corporation, with a 
capital stock of ;$ 100, 000, was organized September, 1886. They own 
forty-seven acres of land two miles from the city, on Village Creek, favor- 
ably situated for manufacturing enterprises. They sell lots at reasonable 
rates. The lands lie on the western extension of the Georgia Pacific 
Railroad, and are suitable for residences for workingmen, being dry and 
healthful. 

The officers are E. Eastman, President, and B. F. Moore, Secretary 
and Treasurer. 

East Lake Land Company. — The F)ast Lake property is situated 
from four and a half to six and a half miles eastward from the city. It 
comprises two thousand acres of land among the hills at the head of 
Village Creek. 

The organization is capitalized at 5 100 the share, and each share 
represents one acre. The capital stock, therefore, is $200,000. 

The purpose of the company is to connect their property with the 
city by rail. They will then lay off the area into lots for residences and 
for the erection of trading shops suited to commerce in family supplies, 
dry goods, and the like. They do not propose to encourage the building 
of any great iron manufactories. But rather their effort is to furnish 
homes for families of workingmen and business men who would escape 
the smoke, and other annoyances, of an iron manufacturing town. 

Among the plans of the company for beautifying their property is 
the creation of a lake of some forty acres, to be formed from the numer- 
ous springs around the valley. They will thus have an abundance of the 
purest water for all purposes of a town. 

The East Lake settlement embraces the Ruhama neighborhood, long 
known as the seat of the best educational facilities of Jefferson County, 
and as the home of a large number of well-to-do farmers. 

The surrounding country is famous for the salubrity and equability of 
the climate. 



Birmingham. 265 

It is evident that East Lake has a distinctive character of its own. 
It is an enterprise destined to add much to the value of Birmingham by 
creating a delightful place of residence for business men and workingmen 
in easy reach of the trade and manufactories of the city. Fifteen minutes 
wiL serve for the dummy to run, with the street car attached, from the 
center of Birmingham to the center of the East Lake settlement. The 
initial sale of lots has been very satisfactory in prices bid. 

E.AST Birmingham Land Company. — Late in November a few citizens 
of Birmingham organized this promising company. They bought some 
six hundred acres of land near Village Creek, to the east of the city, a 
mile or more distant from the corporate limits. They have already entered 
upon plans to establish important manufactories on their tract. 

The English owners of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad are 
interested in this enterprise. Altogether, it controls very large capital for 
supporting its stock. 

The company put its lots on the market as soon as they could be 
surveyed, but rapid sales induced it to withdraw them. 

Mr. Goldsmith B. West, a well-known correspondent of leading 
industrial journals, is President; George C. Kelley, President of the 
Baxter Stove Works, is Secretary, and W. J. Cameron, President of the 
First National Bank, is Treasurer. This is a very strong organization 
and a very active one. The capital stock is $1,500,000. 

The lands of this company front on Village Creek and on the Louis- 
ville & Nashville Railroad, and will be connected with the Georgia Pacific 
Railroad. They are very favorably located for manufacturing enterprises. 

The Birmingham-Ensley Land and Improvement Company was 
organized December 13, 1886, by H. F. DeBardeleben, R. H. Pearson, 
Robert Warnock, J. H. Slaton, John W. Reed, John W. Tomlinson, 
James W. Sloss, Jr., and W. P. Pinckard. The object of the company is 
to carry on a general manufacturing and industrial business, to buy, sell, 
and hold lands, to improve the same by laying off into lots, streets, and 
parks, the construction of lakes, race tracks, and other pleasure resorts, 
the quarrying of limestone and preparing the same for market, to manu- 
facture pig iron, steel, and all other articles which can be made with coal 
or coke and iron ore, or from wood, iron, or steel, alone, or in conjunction 
with any other material, to erect buildings, dwellings, stores, and shops, 
and all machinery to accomplish the ends sought, to build and operate 
tramways, railroads, and to construct water works. 



266 Jefferson County. 

The capital stock is ;^450,ooo, divided into four hundred and fifty 
shares. At a meeting of stockholders on December 14, when books of 
subscription were opened, more than half the stock was subscribed hna 
fide, of which more than 20 per cent, was paid. 

The directors are J. H. Slaton, Robert Warnock, J. H. Tomlir.son, 
H. F. DeBardeleben, W. P. Pinckard, Andrew Adger, R. H. Pearson. 
Officers: J. H. Slaton, President and General Manager; Robert Warnock, 
Secretary and Treasurer. 

Glendale Land Company. — Was organized September 14, 1886, and 
incorporated by D. M. Drennen, John W. Read, and Robert Warnock. 
The purpose is to deal generally in real estate, and to improve the same by 
laying off streets and avenues, and grading them, and to connect their 
property with the city of Birmingham by streets, graded roads, or other- 
wise; to build lakes, and to otherwise beautify their possessions. 

The capital stock is 268,000, of six hundred and eighty shares, with 
the privilege secured of increasing the capital stock. When the books of 
subscription were opened on September 20, 1886, all the stock was sub- 
scribed by bona fide subscribers. Some of the stock was subscribed in 
land and some in money, and the whole of the cash subscription was at 
once paid in. The directors appointed were D. M. Drennen, R. War- 
nock, John W. Read. Officers: R. Warnock, President; John W. Reed, 
Vice-President ; D. M. Drennen, Secretary and Treasurer. All the cash 
subscriptions and all the land subscribed were then secured to the com- 
pany, the former by actual payment and the latter by legal transfer. 

Belt Road Land Company. — Organized December 3, 1886, by F. 
W. Gaines, Nashville, Tenn., A. A. Clisby, and A. K. Shepard, Jr., of 
Birmingham, Ala. The object is to buy, hold, own, sell, and convey 
real estate. The capital stock is $160,000, of 1,600 shares of the par value 
of ^100 each, with the privilege of increasing the capital stock to 
$300,000. 

On the 4th of December all the capital stock was subscribed. The 
directors are A. 'A. CHsby, A. K. Shepard, Jr., F. W. Miller. Officers: 
A. A. Clisby, President; A. K. Shepard, Jr., Secretary and Treasurer. 
Twenty-five per cent, of the capital stock was then paid in by the sub- 
scribers. 

The Mutual Land and Improvement Company. — Was organized 
December 24, 1886, and incorporated by H. Lowenthal, L. H. Schmidt,. 



Birmingham. 267- 

and E. Lesser. The purpose is to buy, sell, build upon, and otherwise 
improve real estate. Capital stock is ^7,500, of 120 shares. December 
27 the whole of the stock was taken. A board of directors, composed of 
the three names above given as incorporators, was appointed, and H. 
Lowenthal was made President, and E. Lesser Secretary and Treasurer. 

The Walker Land Company. — Was organized December 31, 1886, 
and incorporated by William A. Walker, Jr., John C. Morrow, Mary A. 
Morrow, Rufus H. Hagood, and America Hagood, all of Birmingham ; 
and Margaret Walker, James C. Long, Fannie W. Long, Thomas S. 
Smith, and Lucy E. Smith, all of Elyton. The object is to improve such 
lands as they may acquire, and to lay the same off into streets, lots, 
parks, and alleys, and to supply illuminating agents of all kinds, and to 
carry on a general industrial and manufacturing business. 

The capital stock is ^1,200,000, divided into 12,000 shares. The 
directors appointed were John C. Morrow, Rufus H. Hagood, James C. 
Long, Thomas S. Smith, William A. Walker, Jr. Officers: William A. 
Walker, Jr., President; Thomas S. Smith, Secretary. All of the capital 
was paid promptly on the completion of the organization of the company. 

The South-Side Land Company. — Was organized September 28, 1886, 
and incorporated by John Phelan, William F. Smith, and Richard C. 
Bradley. The purpose is to buy and sell real estate, and to improve the 
same. 

Capital stock, $100,000; divided into 1,000 shares. On October 6 
all of the stock was subscribed on opening the books by bona fide 
subscribers. Directors: John W, Moore, W. F. Smith, John Phelan, M. 
Bostick, William T. Wheless. Officers: John W. Moore, President; W. 
F. Smith, Secretary ; William T. Wheless, Treasurer. All of the stock 
was at that time paid. 

Village Creek Land Company. — Organized October 12, 1886. 
Incorporated by Benjamin F. Moore, R. D. Smith, and Elwell Eastman. 
The purpose is to build upon the land a city to be called " Mound City," 
and the nature of the business it proposes to do is to acquire land by 
subscription to the capital stock, and by purchase. The company also 
proposes to put up all kinds of industrial enterprises. 

The capital stock is $100,000, divided into 200 shares. On October 
12, 1886, books of subscription were opened, and 99 per cent, of the 
stock taken. The directors consist of B. F. Moore, R. D. Smith, and 



268 Jefferson County. 

Elwell Eastman. Officers: Elwell Eastman, President; Robert D. Smith, 
Vice-President; Benjamin F. Moore, Secretary and Treasurer. All the 
stock was paid in lands. 

East P^nd Land Company. — Organized November 6, 1886. Incor- 
porated by W. P. Pinckard, H. F. DeBardeleben, Andrew M. Adger, and 
T. H. Aldrich. The object of the corporation is to deal in real estate, and 
the nature of the business is to buy, own, and improve, exchange, 
mortgage, and take mortgage on real estate. 

Capital stock, $100,000; divided into i,000 shares, with the privilege 
of increasing to ^1,000,000. The stockholders are A. M. Adger, 400 
shares; W. P. Pinckard, 200 shares; H. F. DeBardeleben, 200 shares; 
T. H. Aldrich, 200 shares. Directors: A. M. Adger, T. H. Aldrich, H. 
F. DeBardeleben, VV. P. Pinckard. Officers: W. P. Pinckard, President; 
A. M. Adger, Secretary and Treasurer. More than 20 per cent, of the 
capital stock was paid in money on November 20, and the rest secured to 
be paid in installments. All the amount then subscribed was paid into 
the hands of the treasurer. 

Ensley Land Company. — The petition to incorporate this company 
was filed December 7, 1886, by Enoch Ensley, Memphis, Tenn. ; Thomas 
D. Radcliff, Pratt Mines, Ala. ; T. T. Hillman, and William A. Walker, 
Jr. The principal place of business is to be at Ensley, Jefferson County. 

The general purpose and nature of the business is the buying and 
selling of lands ; improving the same by surveying and laj'ing off into 
lots, parks, streets, and alleys ; to construct gas, electric, or other 
illuminating works, and manufacture and sell the products and results 
thereof; to construct all kinds of pleasure resorts, to quarry stone; to 
manufacture pig-iron, steel, and other articles which can be made with 
coal, coke, or other fuel, out of iron ore, or any other ore or metals, or 
from wood, stone, earth, cotton, iron, or steel, either alone or in con- 
junction with any other material, to buy, use, or sell the same; the 
-erection of such buildings, dwellings, stores, shops, and all the machinery 
that may be necessary for carrying on such business ; to build and operate 
necessary railroads and tramways; to carry on stores, and necessary 
mercantile establishments ; to construct and operate water works ; to 
construct and maintain reservoirs, conduits, canals, and pipes. 

The capital stock, ;gio,ooo,ooo, is divided into ;gioo-shares. Books 
of subscription were opened December 8, at the office of Hewitt, Walker 
& Porter, and the whole amount of the capital was subscribed \yy bo7ia fide 



Birmingham. 269 

subscribers. The directors elected were Enoch Ensley, T. T. Hillman, 
Thomas D. Radcliffe, William A. Walker, Jr., John H. Inman, of New 
York ; William N. Duncan, and Nathaniel Baxter, Jr. The officers 
elected were Enoch Ensley, President ; Thomas D. Radcliffe, Secretary 
and Treasurer. Twenty per cent, of the capital subscribed was then paid 
to the treasurer, and the remainder secured to be paid as required by law. 

Cahaba Valley Land Company. — Organized September 20, 1886; 
incorporated by Henry Milner, J. B. C. Elliott, James I. Abercrombie, 
J. A. Milner, E. S. Jones, J. W. Bass. 

The purpose is to buy, sell, and lease real estate ; to buy, sell, and 
lease personal property ; to build, sell, and lease houses ; to build rail 
and street railroads, tram roads, water works, and to do all other things 
necessary to accomplish their purpose. Principal place of business is at 
Leeds, Ala. Capital stock is ;?i 5,000, divided into one hundred and fifty 
shares, with the privilege of increasing the same. Subscribers to the 
capital stock are as follows : Henry Milner, Leeds, five shares ; J. B. C. 
Elliott, Leeds, eleven shares ; James L Abercrombie, Leeds, five shares ; 
J. A. Milner, Leeds, two shares ; George L. Young, Leeds, five shares ; 
Dr. E. S. Jones, Leeds, four shares ; J. W. Bass, Leeds, three shares. 

More than 20 per cent, of the capital stock was then subscribed by 
these parties in money, which was paid into the hands of the treasurer, 
and the remainder secured to be paid in money in installments. 

East End Land and Improvement Company. — Organized April 6, 
1886; board corporators, R. H. Pearson and T. B. Lj^ons. 

General purpose is to carry on an industrial business in Jefferson 
County ; to manufacture textile fabrics and all articles of wood, stone, and 
metal ; to purchase, hold, and convey real estate and personal property, 
and to develop and improve the same. Capital stock is to be :Sioo,ooo, 
divided into shares of $100 each, with the privilege to increase the same 
to such amount as the stockholders desire. On April 6th more than half 
of the capital stock was subscribed by bo7ia fide subscribers, and more 
than 20 per cent, of the said amount subscribed was paid in. Directors : 
T. B. Lyons, J. V. Richards, George L. Morris, J. F. Johnston, and R. 
H. Pearson. Officers: R. H. Pearson, President; T. B. Lyons, Secre- 
tary and Treasurer. 

The Clifton Land Company. — Organized December 31, 1886, by 
B. F. Roden, E. K. Fulton, M. T. Sumner, A. G. Morris, and C. W. 



2 70 Jefferson County. 

Van Vleck, of Cincinnati, Ohio. The purpose is to carry on any manu- 
facturing, mining, or industrial business ; to deal generally in real estate 
and personal property; to build and operate railroads, street railroads, and 
tramways ; to build and sell houses ; to erect furnaces, factories, and saw 
mills ; to own, operate, and sell the same. 

The capital stock is ;^225,ooo, divided into 2,250 shares. Only 
^190,000 of the stock is to be issued, leaving a reserve fund in the treas- 
ury of ^35,000, to be used at the discretion of the company for the 
improvement of their property. 

Officers: B. F. Roden, President; D. H. Sumner, Secretary and 
Treasurer. More than 20 per cent, of the capital then subscribed has 
been paid in money to the treasurer, and the remainder subscribed, pay- 
able in money, has been secured, and will be paid in installments as 
needed for the company's use as by the directors ordered. 

College Hill L.\nd Company. — Organized December 7, 1886, by W. 
P. Pinckard, H. F. DeBardeleben, W. H. Johnston, Andrew M. Adger, 
David Roberts, M. E. Lopez, Augustine T. Smythe, Charleston, S. C. 

The general purpose is to acquire lands, by purchase or otherwise, 
or subscription to the capital stock. 

The capital stock is $210,000, divided into 2,100 shares. On Jan- 
uary 7th all the stock was subscribed for by bona fide subscribers, to be 
paid in lands and transferred by proper deeds of conveyance to the com- 
pany. The officers are W. P. Pinckard, President ; A. M. Adger, Sec- 
retary and Treasurer. 

Bessemer Land and Improvement Company. — Organized January 
6, 1887. Henry F. DeBardeleben, Andrew M. Adger, David Roberts, 
Charleston, S. C. ; Moses E. Lopez, Charleston, S. C, and Augustine T. 
Smythe, Charleston, S. C, are the incorporators. 

The nature of the enterprise is to acquire lands, cither by subscrip- 
tion to its capital stock or by purchase or otherwise ; to build a town or 
■city, to be called Bessemer, by laying off property for that purpose ; also, to 
have parks or other suitable pleasure resorts, to dispose of the lots laid 
off, and to build all kinds of industrial establishments and dwelling houses. 

Capital stock, $2,500,000, divided into twenty thousand shares. 
Directors: H. F. DeBardeleben, Andrew M. Adger, Augustine T. 
Smythe, William Berney, Moses E. Lopez, and David Roberts. Officers : 
H. F. DeBardeleben, President; Andrew M. Adger, Secretary; William 
Berney, Treasurer ; Augustine T. Smythe, Solicitor. 



BirmingJiam. 2 7 1 

The Bradfield Company. — Organized January 5, 1887, by L. T. 
Bradfield, R. L. Houston, John W. Bush, John Vary, William M. Brooks; 
to buy, sell, and deal in real estate and coal, and mineral lands, and in 
stocks, bonds, bills, notes, and negotiate loans on mortgage securities, 
and for the purpose of establishing a general land and collecting agency. 

Capital stock, $25,000, divided into twenty-five shares. Each of the 
parties named have subscribed for and own five shares of stock. 

Highland Lake Land Company. — Organized January 13, 1887, by 
A. P. Bush, J. W. McConnell, H. F. Wilson, C. H. Francis, and W. H. 
Williams, to deal generally in real and personal property, as may be 
necessary to the successful prosecution of their business; also, to have 
the right to deal in lumber, and such other materials as are necessary to 
build houses. 

The object is to buy and sell real estate, to borrow money upon 
mortgages of its real estate, to lend money upon mortgages of real estate, 
or upon other security, and to improve the real estate of the company by 
erecting such structures thereon as may be necessary for the profitable use 
thereof. 

The capital stock is $250,000, divided into 2,500 shares. 

Central Land and Improvement Company. — Organized January 14, 
1887, by John B. Boddie, Eugene V. Gregory, Willis J. Milner, Marcel- 
lus G. Hudson, Erastus S. Ferryman, David P. Bestor, George A. Pearce, 
Charles S. Dumont, William H. Ketchum, Margaret Reese, Orville F. 
Cawthon, of Mobile ; Charles Handy, of Atlanta ; John Moore, of Colum- 
bia, Tenn. 

The capital stock is $250,000, divided into 2,500 shares. 

The officers are John W. McConnell, President; Charles H. Francis, 
Secretary and Treasurer, and E. T. Taliaferro, Attorney. 

Fifty per cent, of the capital stock subscribed was paid to the 
secretary and treasurer. 

MISCELLANEOUS CORPORATIONS. 

Alabama Real Estate and Loan Association. — Organized August 
30, 1886, by James T. Meade, Charles M. Erwin, and J. L. Ward, to do 
business as a real estate and insurance agency, either for themselves or 
others. The capital stock, $15,000, with authority to increase to $100,000, 
is divided into 150 shares of the par value, $100, 



272 Jefferson County. 

All subscriptions, payable in money and property, were then delivered 
to the treasurer. 

North Highlands Company. — Organized December 6, 1886. The 
petitioners for incorporation were John W. Johnston, John B. Boddie, 
and A. B. Johnston. The purpose is to buy, sell, hold, improve real 
estate, and to rent the same, and to build on the lands acquired, when 
expedient to further the ends of the company. 

Buildings are to include shops, mills, foundries, furnaces, and other 
works, or establishments such as may tend to the development of its prop- 
erty in and around Birmingham. The principal place of business is to 
be in or near Birmingham. The capital stock, $350,000, is divided into 
3,500 shares. 

On January 10, 1887, all the capital stock of the corporation was sub- 
scribed, payable partly in money and partly in property, at its money 
value, named in the subscription. 

The officers elected were John W. Johnston, President ; A. B. John- 
ston, Secretary and Treasurer. 

All the subscriptions, payable in money and pro])crty, were then 
delivered to the treasurer. 

North Birmingham Building Associ.\tion. — Organized December 
6, 1886, by John W. Johnston, A. B. Johnston, John B. Boddie. 
Capital stock, g 100,000. 

Alabama Co-operative Company. — The general purpose is to da 
business as manufacturers, money-lenders, and borrowers, and real estate 
and personal property owners, and to buy, own, sell, and deal generally 
in such real and personal estate and securities as may be necessary to the 
successful conduct of their business. The capital stock is S 10,000, divided 
into 100 shares of the par value, $100. 

The following officers were elected : Grattan Britton, President; E. T. 
Cox, Vice-President; R. M. Brown, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Birmingham Corrugating Company. — Incorporated January 13, 1886,. 
by Richard W. Boland, W. T. Underwood, VV. G. Lunsford, A. O. 
Lane, and Goldsmith B. West. 

The purpose is to corrugate iron and other metals ; to stamp, galvan- 
ize, or otherwise manufacture and sell the products of mines and furnaces, 
and to manufacture and sell mineral paints. The capita! stock is$ioo,000- 
of 1,000 shares. 



Birmingham. 

Birmingham Investment Company. — The object is to invest a certain 
amount of capital paid in by each member in such speculative 
enterprise as the Association shall, from time to time, direct. Each 
member pays into the common fund $5 per share monthly. The capital 
stock consists of two hundred shares of ^100 each, payable in monthly 
installments. 

Rogers Printing Company. — Incorporated December 29, 1886. The 
purpose is to carry on a general publishing, printing, and lithographing 
business; to manufacture, deal in, and bind blank books. The capital 
stock is ;^2S,ooo. On January 1 more than 50 per cent, of the stock was 
subscribed, all of which was paid in. The officers are George H. Rogers^ 
General Manager and Treasurer; Hooper Harris, Jr., Secretary. 

Ullman Hardware Company. — The object is to engage in the buying 
and selling of hardware building material. The company is composed of 
a general partner, .Samuel Ullman, of Birmingham, Ala., and Julius 
Weiss, of New Orleans, La., special partner. Each partner contributed 
^10,000. The partnership is to continue two years, from November i, 
1886. 

The Watts Coal and Iron Company. — Incorporated May 4, 1886, 
by J. F. B. Jackson, Blount Springs, Ala. ; Norman W. Smith, Birming- 
ham, Ala. ; Eugene Morehead, Durham, N. C. ; A, W. Graham, Hills- 
boro, N. C. 

The general purpose is to carry on a mining and manufacturing 
business. The place of business is at Warrior, Jefferson County, Ala. 

The different purposes are to mine and sell coal, to mine iron ore, 
and other minerals, to manufacture coke, and to use and sell all the above 
articles, and to operate blast furnaces ; to own, sell, and construct turn- 
outs, tramroads and trainways, and the right to condemn the right of way 
for railroads ; to own, sell, and hold and dispose of real and personal 
property. 

Capital stock, $210,000, to be increased at the necessity of the 
corporation. Two thousand one hundred shares, at the meeting to 
complete the organization May 6, 1886, more than one-half of the capital 
stock, were subscribed, and 20 per cent, placed in the hands of the 
treasurer, and the rest secured to be paid. 

16 



2 74 Jefferson County. 

The Birmingham Paint, Glass, and Wall Paper Company. — Incor- 
porated by John C. Hendricks and T. T. Ashford, of Birmingham, Ala., 
October 28, 1886. 

The object is to buy, manufacture, sell, own, and deal generally, 
either wholesale or retail, in paints, oils, glass, wall paper, window shades, 
picture frames, moldings, sash, doors, blinds of every kind and descrip- 
tion, and to deal in personal and real estate to such an extent as will 
further their business, and to borrow and lend money in carrying on the 
business. Capital stock, $10,000, of 100 shares. 

Birmingham Insurance Company. — Organized April, 1883. Capital 
stock, $100,000. B. F. Roden, President ; H. M. Caldwell, Vice-Presi- 
dent ; John G. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer. 

The business of the company has been very successful. 

Iron and Oak Insurance Company. — Organized February, 1886, 
with capital of $200,000, divided into 200 shares. The name of this 
company is indicative of the homes of its incorporators, Birmingham, the 
Iron City, and Tuscaloosa, the Oak City. Robert Jemison is President' 
and John G. Smith Secretary. 

The company does a general fire and marine insurance business, and 
is highly prosperous. 

Roval Insurance Company. — Organized August, 1886, with $100,000 
capital, and thirty-five stockholders. F. C. Morehead is President ; F. 
C. Dunn, General Manager. Outstanding risks by January i, 1887, had 
reached $1,500,000. The business reached by it is as far off as Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, and Fort Leavenworth, and is prosperous. 

Land and Investment Agency. — Organized January 17. 1887, by 
R. D. Peck, J. T. S. Wade, and J. L. Ward. General purpose is to con- 
duct a real estate agency and to invest money for clients on commission. 
The capital stock of the corporation is $5,000, divided into one hundred 
shares. Officers: R. D. Peck, President; J. T. S. Wade, Vice-Presi- 
dent and Manager. 

Alabama Asphalt Mining and Land Company. — Incorporated 
January 6, 1887. The company proposes to develop asphalt, petroleum, 
coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, tin, zinc, and lead, and oleaginous 
substances. The capital is $300,000, of 3,000 shares. Charles L. Handy 



BirmingJiam. 275 

is President; C. M. Erwin, Secretary and Treasurer; D. T. Marable, 
General Manager; H. L. Watlington, Attorney. The whole amount of 
the capital stock has been paid to the treasurer of the company. The 
asphalt branch of the business is very promising. 

Three Rivers Coal .\nd Iron Company. — Incorporated January 7, 
1887, by M. L. Hershey and G. W. Ellis, of Morris, Ala. Principal place of 
business is to be at or near Birmingham. The general purpose is to 
engage in handling farming lands, timber lands, mineral lands, and city or 
town lots, and other lands, timber rights, mineral rights, natural gas 
rights, to develop the same. Also, to erect furnaces, mills, coke ovens, 
and all other establishments for the purpose of the preservation and 
reduction of wood, coal, coke, pig-iron, and all other productions of ores 
and minerals; to build railroads, houses, towns, and waterworks. 

The capital stock is ;g45,000, 450 shares, with the right to increase. 
At a meeting of those interested on January 6, 1887, ;?22,6oo was 
subscribed, and more than 20 per cent, has been paid on the subscriptions. 
G. W. C. Lomb, President ; S. A. lillis. Secretary. 

First National Coal and Iron Land Company. — Incorporated 
January 17, 1887, by F. W. Miller and F. B. Clements. Its object is to 
buy and sell real estate and personal property of all kinds, and also to 
borrow and lend money, with the right to charge a commission for said 
loans besides the legal rate of interest, and a commission on sales of real 
estate and personal property, and also to do such other things, and to 
exercise all such other rights, as may be necessary and convenient in 
carrying on their business. The capital of the company is ;^2, 500,000, 
divided into 25,000 shares. 

Peacock Coal, Iron, and Improvement Company. — Incorporated 
January 18, 1887. The principal place of business is at Birmingham. It 
is the purpose of the company to carry on industrial business ; to engage 
in the manufacture of textile fabrics, and all articles of wood, stone, and 
metal ; to purchase, hold, and convey real estate and personal property, 
and to develop and improve the same. 

The capital stock is fixed at $200,000, of 2,000 shares. The incorpo- 
rators were B. A. Thompson, J. C. Kyle, and P. H. Moore. 

North Alabama Colored Land Company. — Organized January 5, 
1887. The nature of the business is to buy and sell real estate, to build, 



276 Jefferson County. 

rent, and lease houses, and to do a general land business, and to buy and 
sell wood, and to promote among the negroes the industries of agricul- 
ture, mechanics, and the training of skilled labor. 

The capital stock, $50,000, is divided into 500 shares. January 15, 
1887, 50 per cent, of the capital stock was subscribed, and 20 per cent, 
was paid in cash. A. L. Scott was made President, G. W. Jones 
Secretary, and P. F. Clark Treasurer. 

Birmingham Abstract Company. — Incorporated bj- H. F. DeBar- 
deleben, W. P. Pinckard, and D. A. Green, all of Birmingham, Ala., on 
October 28, 1886. The object is to furnish abstracts of titles. 

The capital stock is $10,000. 

Alabama Abstract Company. — Incorporated November 2, 1886, by 
N. W. Trimble, Mobile, Ala.; E. N. Cullom and John H. Wallace, Bir- 
ingham, Ala. The object is to prepare and furnish certificates and 
abstracts of titles. 

The capital stock is $25,000, divided into 250 shares. 

Birmingham Construction Company. — Organized August 13, 1886, 
by John W. Johnston, I. Y. Sage, W. J. Cameron, Joseph F. Johnston. 

The capital stock is $50,000, divided into 500 shares. 

The object is to construct railroads, tramroads, poleroads, turnpikes, 
canals, and to build other structures, and to furnish stone, brick, iron, 
and wood for the same ; to operate quarries, brickyards, factories, saw, 
sash, and planing mills; to pave and improve streets and sidewalks, and to 
furnish material for the same ; to deal in real estate necessary to the prose- 
cution of tlieir business, and to do all other acts incident to a construction 
company. 

People's Homestead Building and Loan Association. — Incorpor- 
ated October 2, 18S6, by M. J. IVIullane, Simon Blach, Louis Swarz, B. 
F. Oldham, T. F. Thornton, H. McGeever, R. M. Hahn, M. Clifford, 
August Schillinger, Mrs. L. H. Schmidt, all of Birmingham. 

Capital stock, $1,500,000, of 7,500 shares, consisting of three series — 
A, B, and C, and each series consisting of 2,500 shares. 

The object is to accumulate a fund from monthly installments 
on account of subscriptions to the capital stock, rentals, premiums, and 
interest on loans; the fund so accummulated to be used for the purchase 



Birniinghaiii. 277 

and sale of real estate, the building, renting, and selling of homesteads, 
and the loaning of funds upon mortgages on real estate in Jefferson 
County, Ala. 

Central Trust Company of Alabama. — Incorporated August 7, 
1886, by H. M. Caldwell, John W. Johnston, Joseph F. Johnston, E. VV. 
Rucker, T. B. Lyons, all of Birmingham, Ala. 

The capital stock is $100,000, in 1,000 shares. 

The objects of the company are the loaning of money on real estate 
security ; the purchase of mortgages ; the purchase and sale of municipal 
bonds, and other securities and evidences of indebtedness, and of such 
real and personal property as may be desirable for its use, or necessary 
for the collection or security of any debts or claims owing to the com- 
pany, or in which it may have an interest ; the negotiation of loans ; the 
acceptance and execution of such trusts as may be committed to it, and 
the buying and selling on commission of real and personal property. 

Co-operative Manufacturing and Building Company of Birming- 
ham. — Incorporated in the fall of 1886, by J. J. Leteworth, Peter Gayler, 
C. H. Bowling, M. A. Bird, VV. J. Marshall, all of Birmingham. 

Capital stock, $10,000, divided into 2,000 shares. 

General purpose is to carry on a manufacturing and industrial business. 

Industrial Protective Association of Birmingham. — Incorporated 
October 11, 1886, by WiUiam Wright, R. M. Hahn, S. White, Wilson 
Mitchell, P. Kinney. The object is mutual assistance, and the accumu- 
lation of a fund by dues, assessments, and contributions from its members, 
from which benefits may be paid to its sick or disabled members, and upon 
the death of a member, the benefit may follow to his family, or to those 
dependent upon him, or such person as he may designate. 

This association has power and authority to enjoy succession for 
twenty years, and to do all such things as are usually granted corporations. 

Birmingham Land and Loan Association. — Founded September 
10, 1886. Officers: A. A. Clisby, President; John S. Jemison, Secretary 
and Treasurer. Capital stock, $50,000. 

This concern does a general loan business on real estate, and sells real 
estate on commission. It sold, by one transaction, four thousand feet 
on the Belt Railroad at the round sum of $100,000 in September, 
1886. In two weeks time it sold for the purchasers the same property 
for $160,000. 



278 Jefferson County. 

Birmingham Real Estate and Investment Company. — Organized 
December 15, 1886, by B. F. Roden, W. H. Morris, J. F. B. Jackson, 
W. D. McCurdy, J. H. Bankhead, J. W. Moore, to buy and sell real 
estate, stocks, bonds, and to conduct an insurance and banking business, 
to negotiate loans on real estate and other securities, and to purchase, 
own, and dispose of personal property. 

The capital stock, $100,000, is divided into 1,000 shares, with the 
right to increase, as the business of the company may require. On 
December 15 all the stock was taken, and 10 per cent, paid in cash. 

The officers are W. D. McCurdy, President; J. H. Bankhead, Vice- 
President; J. W. Moore, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Birmingham Land and Loan Company. — Organized October 2, 1886. 
Capital stock, $50,000. 

Colored Mutual Investment Association of Birmingham, Ala. 
Incorporated March 3, 1886. The principal place of business is Birming- 
ham. The purpose is to buy and sell real estate, to build houses, and 
establish homes. 

The capital stock is $50,000, divided into 500 shares. On April 9 
50 per cent, of the capital stock was subscribed, and 20 per cent, of the 
amount subscribed paid in cash. A board of directors consists of W. S. 
Robinson, T. S. Hazle, J. T. Peterson, J. H. Binford, T. W. Coffee, 
William Robinson, Henry Hall, C. M. Hayward, and Jesse B. Claxton. 

A sufficient number of the corporations and manufactories of Jef- 
ferson County have been given to illustrate the general character of all. 
Many remain unmentioned under the head of such institutions because 
in view of their rapid increase they were not organized or not established 
until after the enumeration given in these pages had been completed. 
The history of some appears in the biographies of their founders. — The 
Publishers. 

MANUFACTORIES. 

The Birmingham Gas and Illuminating Company. — Was incorpor- 
ated in 1878 with a capital stock of $20,000, which has been increased to 
$100,000. It is believed that, with judicious management, the coal near 
the city is admirably suited to gas manufacture. 

The stock of the company is quoted at $2. Thomas Jeffers is Super- 
intendent of the company. 



Birmingham. 279 

Church's Machinery and Fine Tool Works. — The capital stock of 
this establishment is ;^9,ooo only, but it is a profitable and highly useful 
enterprise. It manufactures drill presses, planers, and fine machine tools. 
It is the only establishment of the kind in the South. Markets are found 
for the products of the works over the South, generally in the principal 
cities and towns. Only skilled labor is employed, and wages are from $2 
to $3 per day. Negroes are not found available for this kind of employ- 
ment. Ten men are employed. 

The most important order filled was for the Calera Charcoal Company 
for brass pumps. 

Railroads are disposed to make liberal concessions to the shippers of 
these manufactured goods. 

The erection of this establishment has already done much to divert 
Birmingham trade, in the specialties turned out by it, from other points 
to itself 

The Southern Bridge Company. — Organized with a capital stock of 
1125,000. Principal business is the manufacture of iron and combination iron 
bridges. The market is chiefly confined to Alabama, and the patronage 
is all the industry can supply. 

The principal order thus far is for a bridge over the Coosa River at 
VVetumpka. 

As to labor, about three fourths employed are native Southern 
whites. Negroes, as a class, will not become skilled laborers. 

The railroads are exceedingly liberal in respect to freight charges. 

The officers are W. J. Cameron, President; E. VV. Linn, Secretary 
and Treasurer. 

The Birmingham Agricultural Implement Works. — The capital 
stock is ;^5o,ooo. The object is to manufacture implements for cotton 
culture. 

This important enterprise was set on foot by W. H. Mercer and D. 
T. Marable. Dr. J. D. S. Davis is President. 

W. H. Mercer invents many of the implements here manufactured. 
A negro man, an employe, invented a double-foot plow which is manu- 
factured and sold by these works. Wages here are ^i and $l per diem> 

The inventor, Mr. Mercer, is a South Carolinan by birth. 

The labor is all Southern born. 



2 8o Jefferson County. 

Birmingham Iron Works. — These works were founded by men of 
.Alabama birth. John T. Hardie, now of New Orleans, is President, and 
William Hardie, of Birmingham, is Secretary and Treasurer. 

The capital is $50,000. The market is chiefly Jefferson County and 
other parts of Alabama. Birmingham is now a good market, and is 
increasing as such. The principal or larger single contracts filled are the 
piping and pumps entire for the Talladega Water Works, and the one 
hundred and fifty-horse-povver Corliss engine for the Wharton Flouring 
Mills, of Birmingham. 

The railroads are inclined to grant special terms to some points, but 
not to all. Wages range from $\ to $5 per diem. 

Wharton Flouring Mills. — Capital, $50,000, all owned in the city. 

The products of the mills are flour, meal, and bran. The principal 
market for the products is in the city. 

All labor employed is Southern born. Negroes are not to be relied 
on except for lower grades of employment. Wages are $\ to $3.50. 

This concern does not ship much of its products. 

It manufactures finest grades of flour from Tennessee wheat. 

The mill company propose to erect at once an elevator adjoining their 
mills. 

This establishment was founded by W. G. Wharton. G. C. Ball is 
the President ; J. M. Wharton is Secretary and Treasurer. 

AvoNDALE Ice Factory. — W. R. Brown, President. 

The Birmingham Ice Factory is one of the prominent industries, 
managed with energy and keeping pace with the demand for its products. 

Jefferson Pressed Brick Works. — The capacity of the works is 
150,000 brick per day, mostly made by negroes, who, in this occupation, 
receive $ I to $1.25 per day, and are satisfactory. The city and county 
afford a fine and regular market. 

The railroads are very encouraging to the business, reducing regular 
rates when thought necessary. 

Birmingham Bridge and Bolt Works. — Founded May, 1886, by 
C. W. Wood & Co. Capital, January i, 1887, $50,000. Manufactures 
wrought-iron and combination bridges, viaducts, trestle piers, girders, 
roofs and structural iron works, bridge and machine bolts, rivets, screws, 
etc. This is the pioneer company in this line in Birmingham. 



Binningliani. 281 

This work pays labor from 30 cents to 50 cents per hour. Only 
Southern-born white labor in the higher grades is employed, and the works 
make it an object to employ it as far as practicable. 

The negro is used for common grades. The superintendent thinks 
there can be no possible future employment for the negro as a skilled 
laborer. 

In respect to the difference between Northern labor and Southern 
whites, the latter evince a natural aptitude to learn to take the part of 
skilled labor but they do not possess "staying qualities" so far as dispo- 
sition may be concerned. They work for good wages until they acquire a 
round sum. They then spend it and work for more. Meantime they are 
idle or half employed. 

Business in this line is fairly patronized in the city, and this estab- 
lishment has custom in various parts of the South. At this writing they 
run all day and night to fill their orders. 

The management thinks the railroads ought to be more liberal than 
they are with their freight charges. 

Smith Sons' Gin and Machine Company. — This establishment was 
founded November, 1886. The capital stock is ^100,000. The incor- 
porators are A. W. Smith, J. W. Sloss, Birmingham ; D. L. Smith, Gal- 
veston, Texas ; E. Ensley, Memphis. 

The character of the enterprise is the manufacture of machines and 
implements, as well as gins ; also, wood work. The market is in the sev- 
eral Southern States. Wages are from $\ to ^y^o per diem. Negroes 
cannot be relied on for other than the lower grades. 

"The railroads are liberal in their commissions to us, and never dis- 
criminate against us." 

Alabama Iron Works. — Founded January, 1886. Capital, $20,000. 

The character of the business is the manufacture of the Van Pelt 
DoubleActing Force Pump, wrought-iron work, frogs, switches, tram 
■cars, miners' needles, iron fencing, drills, etc., consuming one and a half 
tons of pig iron daily. The home market and the general markets of Ala- 
bama and Mississippi patronize the establishment. 

Wages run from $\ to $1 per diem. Work no negroes, because that 
kind of labor cannot be relied on. 

About one half of the white labor employed is native Southern. 

Southern white labor shows a remarkable aptness for acquiring the 
habits of skilled labor. 



282 Jefferson Comity. 

Terms with railroads depend upon the degree of competition they 
offer for traffic among themselves. 

Henry Behrens is President, Jacob Schmidt Superintendent, and W. 
W. Barclay Secretary and Treasurer. 

Southern Foundry and Manufacturing Company. — Founded 
August, 1886, by William Veitch, George Veitch, Jacob Schmidt, and 
W. Barclay. The articles manufactured are all kinds of hoUowware, 
grate fronts, sash weights, frogs, crossings, and general foundry work. 

General market is found in the Southern States. The home city 
market and the Alabama market grow rapidly. 

Wages run from $\ to $2.60 per diem. 

Work no negro labor. Four-fifths of the white labor is Southern 
born. 

Baxter Stove Works. — This mammoth enterprise broke ground 
July 30, 1886. In December following they were turning out one hun- 
dred complete stoves per day, consisting of all styles of heating and cook- 
ing. Their plant covers four acres of land. They employ three hundred 
men, nearly all being white men. They own thirteen acres of land, 
bought for the sole purpose of erecting thereon cottages for their 
employes. 

The capital stock is ^200,000. George C. Kelley, the President, is a 
native of Wilmington, North Carolina, and formerly a large hardware mer- 
chant of Birmingham. The other officers are W. H. Woolbridge, First Vice- 
President; W. D. Hill, Second Vice-President; C W. Sisson, Secretary 
and Treasurer. 

The company is overrun with business, and doubled its large working 
room in less than sixty days from the opening. 

Brewer's Sash, Door, and Blind Manufactory. — This is a two- 
story brick establishment located on First avenue, the property of a work- 
ingman doing a large business, and is one of the most notable examples 
of success gained from the bottom rung in the ladder of fortune to be 
found in Birmingham. A boy, with the suit of clothes he wore as his 
wardrobe and $10 cash capital, which he had gained by working at night, 
set out into Montgomery County to become a builder and contractor. In 
1871 he came to Birmingham, and worked in the building of the Relay 
House. With his savings he put up a foot-power scroll saw, and began 
to manufacture fancy scroll work. After a time he put up three additional 



Birnmighain. 285 

machines, to which he applied water power. Soon he bought the Tate 
planing mill. The business capacity of the present establishment is about 
$100,000 per annum, which is the largest in its line in Alabama. The 
owner possesses property in Birmingham worth more than $100,000, 
besides valuable timber lands in Jefferson County. His manufactory has 
all the custom its capacity can supply. 

AvoNDALE Ironworks. — Founded November i, 1886, by P. Bourne 
and F. P. Fitzwilliams. 

The nature of this enterprise is the manufacture of warehouse eleva- 
tors, hoisting machinery, and architectural iron works. 

Market is found in all parts of the South. 

Wages paid are $1 to $2.50 per day. Keep only a few negroes for 
common work. Do not consider them reliable for higher grades of 
employment. About one-half of white labor employed is Southern 
born, and the remainder Northern born. 

The Birmingham market takes up four-fifths of the product of these 
works, with tendency always upward in demand. 

The railroads at Birmingham are very liberal, more so than at other 
points in the experience of the same management. Indeed, the railroad 
rates comprise a very material inducement to the location of the business 
of the works at Birmingham. 

Excelsior Foundry and Machine Shop. — Founded May, 1886, by 
E. R. Jones. Capital, ^20,000. Output, fifty thousand pounds castings, 
machinery, and wrought iron per diem. Market, as to foreign parts, in 
Tennessee, South Carolina, and other Southern States. 

About three-fourths of the labor employed are Southern born. The 
management finds that, with training, negroes may learn to become skilled 
labor. Wages run from $ I to $3 per day. Birmingham is the most liberal 
customer, and the city custom increases. 

A large order has been filled forthe Pioneer Manufacturing Company 
of Jefferson County, another is being filled for the Sloss Furnace Com- 
pany, and yet another for the Glen Mary Coal Company of Tennessee. 

The railroads make liberal terms for the company, but sometimes 
there is trouble in the transferring of cars from one railroad to another. 

Avonuale Stove Works. — Present capital, $40,000. Founded 
November, 1885, by Schoch, Wood & Co. 

Business is the manufacture of hollowware, stoves, plumbers' sup- 
plies, and light castings generally. 



Icffcrson Lonnty. 

Market in Birmingham. There is demand in \arious parts of the 
South, but the local city market has consumed all the establishment can 
turn out. 

Common labor is paid ^i and skilled $2 per day. 

Birmingham Chain Work..s. — Founded September, i88j, by B. F. 
Roden and Oliver Weiser. 

Present capital, ^§30,000. Manufactures chains. Principal markets 
are in the South. 

Labor is paid ninety cents for common and $4 for skilled. The man- 
agement does not find negro labor available except as common labor. 
About 25 per cent, is Southern-born white labor. 

Railroads protect the manufacturers to a reasonable extent. 

Birmingham Axe and Tool Company. — Incorporated December, 

1886, with a capital of ;^I00,000. The incorporators are J. D. Moore. B. 
F. Moore, W. A. Handley, and C. L. Jeffords. The site is a beautiful 
one just beyond the city limits, lying on the Alabama Great Southern 
Railroad. 

Thompson Brick Company. — Organized December 27, 1886, by T. 
C. Thompson, J. C. Kyle, J. B. Francis, and B. A. Thompson, to manu- 
facture and sell brick ; to buy and sell real estate ; to build houses ; to 
purchase and hold machinery and apparatus necessary for the prosecution 
of the business. 

The capital stock, $20,000, is divided into two hundred shares, with 
the privilege of increasing to ^100,000. 

At a meeting of the subscribers on January 3, 1887, more than 50 
per cent, of the capital stock was subscribed. Directors elected were 
T. C. Thompson, B. A. Thompson, J. C. Kyle, J. B. Francis, W. A. 
Chenoweth, J. A. Kelly, and M. T. Richards. The officers are T. C. 
Thompson, President ; J. C. Kyle, Vice-President ; H. L. Johnson, Sec- 
retary; B. A. Thompson, Treasurer; J. A. Kelly, Superintendent. 

AvoNDALE Lumber and Milling Company. — Organized January 22, 

1887, by W. C. Dean, J. J. Edmonson, both of St. Clair County, Ala., 
and H. F. Trammell, R. W. Trammell, and Peyton G. King. The prin- 
cipal place of business is at Avondale, Ala. The purpose is to buy, sell, 
and deliver lumber ; to manufacture any and all wooden goods, imple- 
ments and machinery, lumber, doors, sash, blinds, stairways, office and 



Birmingha7n. 2<S7 

store fixtures, coffins, building materials, and all other things commonly 
used and manufactured out of wood ; to build houses of wood, brick, or 
iron ; to buy, sell, own, and deal generally in real and personal property 
necessary to the successful prosecution of their business. 

The capital stock is $30,000, at the par value of $100 per share. More 
than 20 per cent, of the capital stock has been paid into the hands of 
the secretary and treasurer. 

Al.akama Gas, Fuel, and Manufacturing Company. — Incorporated 
November 30, 1886, by Robert P. Duncan and Robert Jemison, both of 
Birmingham. Its principal business is the manufacture and sale of the 
Biddison heater, or burner, and the sale of State and county rights. 

Capital stock, $30,000, divided into 300 shares. 

Birmingham Soap Works. — Incorporated September 15, 1886, by W. 
R. Rosser, T. C. Simpson, C. H. Francis, D. Drennen, J. T. Wilson, all 
of Birmingham, Ala. Capital stock, $50,000, with the privilege to increase 
at pleasure. There are 1,000 shares of $50 each. 

The object is to manufacture soaps of various kinds, and to soil the 
same, and to purchase sufficient real estate for carrying on their business, 
and to own and hold personal property to any amount. 

The officers elected for one year are D. M. Drennen, President ; W. 
N. Malone, Vice-President ; C. H. Francis, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Birmingham Land, Tanning .\nd Manufacturing Companv. — Incor- 
porated December 30, 1886. The general purpose is the tanning of hides, 
skins, and finishing and dressing of leather, and the manufacture of the 
same into the various articles for which leather is used. The capital stock 
is $250,000, of 2,500 shares. 

The officers are Robert D. Smith, President ; Joseph B. West, Vice- 
President ; James Hays, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Sixty per cent, of the capital stock has been paid into the hands of 
the treasurer. 

Alabama W.\gon and Carri.age Company. — Incorporated January 
13, 1887, by C. B. Powell, Helena, Ark.; C. B. Gordon, Racine, Wis.; 
J. A. Powell, luka. Miss. The purpose is to manufacture wagons, bug- 
gies, carriages, and other vehicles. 

The capital is Sioo,ooo, of 1,000 shares, to be increased at option. 



2 88 Jeff CI- son County. 

Birmingham Axe and Tool Company. — Incorporated December 8, 
1886. The business is to manufacture axes, hatchets, picks, hammers, 
bolts, tools, wedges, crowbars, etc. 

The officers are J. D. Moore, President ; VV. A. Handley, Vice-Pres- 
ident ; B. F. Moore, Secretary ; C. L. Jeffords, Manager. 

The capital stock is ^100,000, divided into 1,000 shares. The stock 
was all taken on December 10. 

Twenty per cent, of the capital stock was then paid into the hands of 
the treasurer. 

Birmingham Machine and Foundry Company. — Incorporated Jan- 
uary 14, 1887. It is the purpose of the company to manufacture 
machinery, tools, implements, all kinds of railroad supplies, and furnace 
work, that can be made of wood, wrought or cast iron, or other metals, 
or of wood and other metals. 

The capital stock is ;^ioo,000, divided into 1,000 shares. 

The Birmingham Brewery. — In 1884 Mr. Philip Schillinger, a suc- 
cessful brewer, of Louisville, Ky., one of the organizers of the Phoenix 
Brewing Company, of that city, among the most noted in the South, 
came to Birmingham to investigate the prospect for a similar enterprise in 
the city. Possessing many of the superior characteristics of the steady 
German race, he was quick to perceive the many advantages offered, chief 
among them the central location and clear field. He was quick to decide 
upon his plans. In the same year he established the Birmingham Brew- 
ery, the only one in the State. 

The buildings erected by him, between Avenues Eand F and Twenty- 
first and Twenty-second streets, were thought to be ample for years in 
the future. But the remarkable growth of the city, and the popularity 
of his product, made it imperative that his works should be enlarged. 
In the fall of 1 886 he erected an additional 35x70 feet, which increases 
his storage capacity threefold. 

Mr. Schillinger began business with all of the improved machinery 
necessary, including two Arctic refrigerators. By means of this machinery 
the cellars and storage vaults can be kept at any degree of temperature 
from freezing to more intense cold. He has added new machinery, and 
enlarged from time to time, until this establishment presents a model of 
its kind. 

Mr. Schillinger's trade has steadily increased. The first year's sales 
were about 8,ooo barrels, and for 1886 about 10,000 barrels, which is 



Birmingham. 289 

chiefly sold in this city, where he has practically the entire trade. With 
his present facilities and a storage capacity of 6,000 barrels, he intends 
to extend his trade as well as the reputation of his product. 

Mr. Schillinger is ably assisted in the management and control of his 
business by his three sons. August has charge of the city trade ; Louis 
is superintendent, and is a practical brewer, having learned his trade at one 
of the largest breweries in Cincinnati, the Moerlein Brewing Compan}' ; 
and Erwin, who superintends the bottling department. 

Notwithstanding their recent enlargements and improvements, they 
propose to incorporate, in May, 1887, the Schillinger Brewing Company, 
with a capital stock of $100,000, with the following as incorporators and 
officers : Philip Schillinger, President ; August Schillinger, Treasurer ; 
Louis Schillinger, Superintendent and Manager, and Erwin Schillinger 
Secretary. 

They will increase their facilities from time to time, and have already 
ordered two new boilers and another refrigerator from Cleveland, Ohio, 
to be delivered in the fall of 1887. 

Cigar Manufactories. — There are three cigar manufactories in Bir- 
mingham. 

H. J. McCafferty, established 1884, employs five men. 
B. F. Oldham, established January, 1886, with five men. 
Seig & Surman, established March, 1887. 

Birmingham Silk Culture and Silk Manufacturing Company. — 
Organized in the autumn of 1886, with ;?5,ooo capital. 

W. A. Handley is President; C. C. Brennan, Secretary; William 
Berney, Treasurer, all of Birmingham. 

Birmingham Machine and Foundry Company. — In 1881 R. W. 
Boland came to Birmingham and began, on a small scale, to manufacture 
frogs, switches, etc., for railroads. The business advanced rapidly. He 
moved from his small shop, on First avenue and Fourteenth street, to the 
new and large shops built by himself on First avenue and Twenty-ninth 
street, near the Sloss furnaces, placed there new and improved machinery, 
and organized a company with $100,000 capital, of which he became Presi- 
dent, to operate his works. 

Edison Electric Illuminating Company. — Incorporated Novem- 
ber, 1886. Capital stock, $75,000. The incorporators are William Shaw 
and Leigh Carroll, of Birmingham. 



290 Jeffei'so^i Co2inty. 

Kreble E^ngine Manufacturing Company.— Incorporated in the fall 
of 1886. The object of this corporation is to manufacture an improved 
engine, invented by Kreble, of Birmingham, Ala. 

The capital stock is $25,000. 

Birmingham Iron Bridge and Forge Company. — Incorporated 
November, 1886. Capital stock, $250,000. 

J. D. Moore, Robert Jemison, A. P. Sims, Nashville; W. H. Sellers, 
Ohio; H. T. Welty, Cleveland, Ohio; C. D. Reamer, Oberlin, Ohio, and 
Thomas Hearney, New York, are the incorporators. 

The directors elected are H. M. Caldwell, President; H. G. Welty, 
Vice-President; C. E. Kingseed, Secretary and Treasurer. 

Birmingham Furn.a,ce and Manufacturing Company. — Incorporated 
December, 1886. Capital stock, $1,500,000. 

The incorporators are Robert D. Smith and Elwell Eastman, of Bir- 
mingham, Ala.; Jasper M. Thompson, Robert Hogsett, Fuller Hogsett, 
Frank Ewing, of Uniontown, Pa. 

This corporation has begun the erection of two furnaces on the Ala- 
bama Great Southern Road at Irondale, seven miles north-east of Bir- 
mingham. They own several thousand acres of coal and iron-ore land in 
the vicinity. 

Red Mountain Mining and Manufacturing Company. — Incor- 
porated November, 1886. Capital stock, $300,000, all paid up. 

The incorporators are John T. Milner and George McLaughlin. The 
object is to build a furnace. 

Birmingham Steam Laundry. — R. W. A. Wilda established the 
Birmingham Steam Laundry on Avenue C, South Side, in November, 
1883. It employs twelve hands, and has several thousand dollars worth 
of latest improved machinery. 

Enterprise Manufacturing Company. — Manufacturers of all kinds 
of woodwork. Incorporated November, 1886. Capital stock, $100,000. 
Stockholders are J. F. B. Jackson, W. H. Morris, W. A. Smith, T. C. 
Thompson, B. F. Roden, W. J. Cameron, William A. Walker, Jr., J. P. 
Mudd, Samuel L. Truss, and M. Gilbreath, of Columbia, South Carolina. 
J. F. B. Jackson, President. The Directors are Messrs. Morris, Walker, 
Cameron, Smith, Roden, and Thompson. Works located on Third ave- 
nue and Eighth street. 



Birmingham. 291 

Caldwell Printing Works. — In a 9x12 oval vase in the business 
office of the above firm is a 2 x 3 J^ inch " Gelding Official " press, which, 
ten years ago, by C. H. Caldwell, then a boy of 13, son of Mr. H. M. 
Caldwell, was the beginning of the present large and well-equipped estab- 
lishment known far and near as the Caldwell Printing Works. The firm 
is now composed of Messrs. C. H. Caldwell and T. W. Carpenter, the 
latter of Richmond, Va. , who became a partner one year ago — both young 
men of fine business sagacity and energy. 

The large three-story brick building on Morris avenue is too small for 
their growing business, and another story is soon to be added. 

The work — book and job printing, from a leaflet to a book of a thou- 
sand pages, and from a small label to a many-sheet poster, and blank-book 
making and binding of the finest description — turned out by this house, 
has gained for it, and Birmingham also, an enviable notoriety in this line 
of business. 

Their material is all of the very best makes, combining the latest 
modern improvements — their ten presses, three cylinders, one Universal, 
and six improved Gordons, a 28-horse-power Ball engine, wood and metal 
type of the newest faces, their stereotyping apparatus, and the bindery 
filled with all the latest appliances known to the trade, their stockroom a 
veritable paper warehouse, all attest the rare tact and business qualifica- 
tions of these young men in seeing and providing for the present and 
future needs of the Magic City. A more honorable example than this 
cannot be found for illustrating the enterprise of young men of family 
wealth who have determined to make fortunes on their own resources in 
the channel of hard work. 

The Printing Department is presided over by Mr. J. D. McClintock, 
and the Bindery by Mr. Charles R. Patterson. 

Mineral Water Manufacturers. — There are two manufactories of 
carbonated water in this city, both supplied with the latest improved 
machinery. 

Davis & Herbert estabhshed the first in order in 1884, on Avenue G 
and Eighteenth street. Their successors are Davis & Worcester, on 
Avenue C and Twenty-second street. They are young men of enterprise 
and tact. 

A. F. Hochstadter established a similar business in 1885 on Third 
avenue, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets. He has entered 
upon a very successful trade, based on the quality of his goods. 

17 



292 Jefferson Coimty. 



WHOLESALE HOUSES. 

Groceries. — The wholesale business was initiated in Birmingham by 
James A. Allen & Co. m 1876, in the grocery line. The firm consisted 
of James A. Allen, John C. Henley, and W. L. Scott. The volume of 
business for several successive years was about $100,000. In 1880 it had 
increased to $150,000. In 1883 the firm became Allen, Scott & Sherrod. 
In 1885 F. O. Sherrod retired to open in the same line on his own 
account. The firm of Allen, Scott & Co. now occupy a large three-story 
house, built and owned by themselves. James A. Allen has retired from 
active business, but retains an interest in the capital of the firm. His son 
is now one of the partners, and the business is in a very prosperous condi- 
tion. 

F. O. Sherrod was prostrated by disease soon after opening a 
hopeful and successful business in the wholesale grocery line. After a 
year's attempt to conduct it, from a sick bed, he sold out. 

T. L. Hudgins established a wholesale grocery business in 1877, and 
in 1878 sold it to J. M. Maxwell & Co. 

J. M. Maxwell and J. A. Van Hoose, both of Tuscaloosa, opened 
trade in the fall of 1878. In twelve months they had done a volume of 
business of $200,000. 

In 1 88 1 the firm of Maxwell & Co. was succeeded by McLester & 
Van Hoose. The business of this pioneer concern so increased that in 
1885 they moved into a large brick storehouse by the railroad track, 
bordering Morris avenue, and their progress has been steady aad uninter- 
rupted. 

In 1882 the house of Wimberly, Malone & Co. opened trade. 
In 1885 C. S. Simmons established himself. The same year Clisby, 
Wigginton & Co. entered the business, and in 1886 sold out to E. C. 
Mackey, who does a large and increasing business. 

In 1886 Wimberly, Malone & Co. became Adler, Malone & Co. 
The wholesale grocery trade of 1886 of the city of Birmingham 
reached §3,000,000, with a steady tendency to advance. 
The brokerage business in the grocery trade is active. 

Hardivare. — The wholesale hardware trade of Birmingham is very 
prosperous, and rapidly increasing. 

Thompson, Francis & Chenowith do about $150,000 per year, and in 
the winter of 1886-87 their business was increased fully 40 per cent. 



Birynmghmn. 293 

Moore, Moore & Handley are probably the largest house. They 
have done a business averaging $1,000 per day for much of the winter 
season of 18S6-87. 

The Towers Hardware Company, successors to George C. Kelley, 
does a volume of business of about 5150,000 per year. 

Chenowith, Estes & Horan do about $75,000 per year in stoves, tin- 
ware, etc. 

The Ullman Hardware Company does about $60,000 per year, with 
steady increase. 

H. T. Beggs & Sons, established 1871. They make stoves, archi- 
tectural iron-work, mining machinery, and general foundry and machine 
work. Their capital stock is $100,000. They employ thirty to sixty 
men, an average, perhaps, of thirty. Their best market is Birmingham, 
and this patronizes them liberally. They ship also to New Orleans, 
various points in Florida, Mississippi, and the country nearer Birmingham, 
and throughout other portions of Alabama. Wages run from $2.50 to $3 
per day. Negroes cannot be worked at all in the skilled work of this 
establishment. 

The Baxter Stove Works manufacture and sell one hundred stoves 
per diem, and will increase their business. 

Wholesale Miscellanies. — The wholesale fruit business is rapidly 
advancing, as is the wholesale clothing business. The increasing well- 
paid wage class in the city and in the extended and extending provincial 
towns create a demand. 

In the wholesale fruit and produce line are Higdon & McCary, W. C. 
Hill, and S. W. Emmons. All are successful and enlarging their trade. 

James B. Hopkins & Co., wholesale tin, opened June i, 1886. Their 
trade from that time up to January i, 1887, was $30,000. Seventy-five 
per cent, of their business is wholesale. 

The Wallis-Duggan Tobacco Company. — This company was estab- 
lished 1886. Business per year is $50,000. They carry all kinds of 
tobaccos and cigars. Their business is increasing rapidly. 

Harralson Bros. & Co. , tobacco, cigars, snuff, and pipes. Established 
in Birmingham in September, 1886. Trade has been successful. 

E. Oppenheimer & Co. opened November 10, 1886. Percentage of 
increase, 100. They carry tobacco, cigars, liquors, and wines. This is a 
branch house of the well-known firm, L. Oppenheimer & Sons, distillers, 
of Louisville. 



294 Jefferson County. 

H. W. Perry & Co. opened business October i, 1883, on Twentieth 
street, between First and Morris avenues. They are wholesale dealers in 
tobacco and cigars. Volume of trade, $150,000. The rate of increase so 
far has been about 50 per cent, per year. 

Milner & Kettig. — The importance of manufacturing enterprises to the 
natural growth and prosperity of great cities is apparent to all observers 
of commercial progress. Situated in the heart of boundless fields of coal 
and iron, Birmingham seems destined to be one of the greatest manufac- 
turing centers of the country. But manufacturing, to be carried on 
successfully, must have a base of supplies, as a near depository of these is 
of the most vital importance. 

In looking over the list of enterprises in Birmingham, we feel that we 
may well mention here some of the typical merchants who are rapidly 
marshaling the city into one of the greatest trade markets of the South. 
By indomitable energy and superior business sagacity, the firm of Milner 
& Kettig has succeeded in building up the largest manufacturers' and 
miners' supply business in the South. The manufacturers of Birmingham 
and of the South need no longer look toward the North and East for their 
supplies, but can find at home as large a stock of machinery, mill and 
mining supplies, pumps, pipe, and fittings as are contained under one roof 
south of Cincinnati. Everything needed by the mining operator to 
develop and open his mines can be found here at prices that defy competi- 
tion. It is here, also, that the furnaces, mills, factories, etc., can find all 
the supplies necessary to carry on their business. The firm is also largely 
engaged in the plumbing, steam, and gas-fitting business, employing the 
best talent obtainable for this special department, and doing all this work 
on a scientific plan, using the best sanitary appliances. The people of 
Birmingham have not been slow in attesting their appreciation, which can 
be seen by the immense amount of work and contracts this firm have con- 
stantly on hand. To keep their customers posted on the ever-increasing 
variety and volume of their business, the firm has just published and 
issued, at much expense, a neatly-bound and excellently-arranged book, 
showing all the goods they handle, illustrated for the convenience of their 
customers. This is the first illustrated catalogue issued by a Southern 
house. They also send out a monthly price list. 

Having the interest of the city at heart this house has several times 
been instrumental in starting younger manufacturers into business by 
giving them substantial aid. Their trade extends from Tennessee to the 
Gulf, and from the Carolinas far into the West. This house is not a 
vendor only. It has lately established the Milner & Kettig Iron and 



Birmiftgham. 295 

Brass Manufacturing Company, which promises to become one of the 
leading industries of the South. Mr. Kettig is Secretary and Treasurer 
of the company. 

Harris Bros., wholesale paints, oils, glassware, paper, moldings, etc., 
opened April 9, 188 1. Situated on Twenty-first street, between First and 
Second avenues. Volume of trade for 1886 was ^30,000, is increasing 
rapidly, and will more than double in 1887. 

Nabers & Morrow commenced the wholesale drug business in March, 
1885. The business has grown very rapidly. The volume of trade for 
1886 was ;g 1 20,000. 

Shaw & Davin, wholesale engines, boilers, pumps, cotton presses, 
cotton gins, saw mills, corn mills, pulleys, shafting, hangers, journal 
boxes, brass goods, belting, pipe and fittings, machinists' and railway 
supplies, opened business May i, 1886. Business has been very satisfac- 
tory. From that time in 1886 to January i, 1887, the volume of trade 
amounted to $90,000. The percentage of increase over the first month's 
business is about 75. The fact of being situated on Morris avenue, and 
immediately on the railroad, has facilitated business in no small degree, 
and has greatly increased their sales, on account of quick delivery, having 
a most favorable position. 

The wholesale trade of Birmingham increases rapidly as transporta- 
tion lines reach out from the city farther into the country, and as new 
industries rise in the suburbs. It will increase lOO per cent, in 1887. 
Retail dealers often have a wholesale department connected with their 
business. 

The Birmingham Cotton and Produce Exchange is a branch of the 
City Cotton and Produce Exchange of Atlanta, Ga. Mr. S. H. Phelan, 
of Atlanta, who is a member of the New York Cotton Exchange, and of 
the Chicago Board of Trade, is proprietor of both Exchanges, but the 
former is under the personal management of Captain John Phelan. 

The Birmingham office was opened January i, 1886, and for the first 
year had a most gratifying and successful career. This is alike an indorse- 
ment of its management by citizens of Birmingham, and a credit to the 
business activity of the city. There are few institutions of any kind which 
for the first year can show up so well. 

The advantage of such an ofifice to the merchants of the city cannot 
well be estimated. It affords the quickest and most reliable means to the 
merchant of keeping accurately up with the tone of the market in other 
important centers. They have not been slow to avail themselves of this 
privilege, and many of them have profited by it. 



296 Jefferso7i County. 

To those who are investors from day to day this office holds out the 
most complete means of knowing when and how to invest. There are 
neatly arranged blackboards, upon which are given every few minutes the 
quotations, so that no one can complain of imperfect facilities. 

The rooms in which the business is conducted are arranged with 
special reference to the needs of those desiring to transact business there. 
They are handsome, well-appointed and equipped in every sense to meet 
all demands that may be made. 

The officers connected with the Exchange are polite and affable, and 
ready at all times to extend every aid to those who wish to try fortune, 
either in the stock, grain, cotton, or meat markets. 

Judging the coming year by the past, one cannot but suppose that 
1887 will be the most successful part of its career. 



CITY TRANSPORTATION. 

The rapid and extensive growth of the street railways of Birmingham 
is one of the remarkable incidents of its career. The city has already as 
many lines of this description of public carriage as would be considered 
liberal in one of one hundred thousand inhabitants. The explanation can 
only be found in the prosperity of the working people and general class 
of employes who are able to pay five-cent fares. 

The Birmingham Street Railway Company. — Was incorporated in 
1879 with a capital stock of $40,000. They now have five miles of track 
in daily use, and are preparing to increase the track laying. This company 
originally obtained from the city a monopoly of street-railway privileges 
on a large number of streets. After some years a new company, the 
"Birmingham and Pratt Mines," came forward with a petition to the city 
to grant it right of way along some of the streets heretofore exclusively 
allowed to the Birmingham Railway Company. The city administration 
reconsidered its action and allowed the new concern the same privileges 
with the other. This course brought about tedious litigation, which was 
finally dismissed by the decree of the State Supreme Court, which sustained 
the action of the city in rescinding the monopoly originally granted to the 
first company. The streets had been given by the Elyton Land Company 
in perpetual trust to the city for the benefit of the public. The city gov- 
ernment had no rights over them except police rights. If two or more 



Birmiyighani. 299 

lines of railway might be laid without detriment to the public good on 
any one or more streets, then the city government could not grant a 
monopoly to one line. 

The fare on the Birmingham Street Railway Company's lines is five 
cents. 

The stock of the company is quoted at $2. 

The first president of the company was B. F. Roden, a large grocery 
merchant and investor in the city. The present president is W. H. Mor- 
ris, who came to the city a young man, became mayor, and has made a 
fortune on his energies and good judgment only. 

The Birmingham Street Railway Company was the pioneer in this 
line, and began to run its first cars from the western end of First avenue 
to Avondale, a distance of about three miles, in the spring of 1885. 
After this line had greatly extended its tracks in different parts of the city, 
and after the Birmingham and Pratt Mines street railway had built and put 
in operation about seven miles of track, the two companies united under 
one management, of which J. A. Van Hoose is President. 

HighlaJid Avenue Dummy Line Railway. — The original purpose of the 
projector, the Elyton Land Company, was to build a drive for vehicles 
along the base of the southern range of mountains confining the city. 
This purpose matured into the railway as an inevitable sequence of 
the good judgment of President Caldwell in originating the plan for 
the drive. 

The line skirts the base of the mountains, meandering along the val- 
ley the whole length. Reaching Lakeview Park, it runs on a shorter 
route across the valley into the heart of the city, terminating at the Opera 
House, corner of First avenue and Nineteenth street. 

There was a protracted contest, before the courts, by the projection of 
this road, with the Birmingham Street Railway Company, involving 
right of way over ground in the city claimed by the latter. This question 
being settled, to the satisfaction of all concerned, the completion of the 
Highland Avenue road was pushed forward with rapidity. 

There are four motors on the line running constantly, yet the tra\'el is 
even greater than these can well accommodate. It far exceeds the expec- 
tations of the company owning the property. The rails are steel, coke is 
used for fuel, and entire immunity from accident to life or limb has, thus 
far, prevailed in the operation of it. 

The object of this road was to open to settlement some fifteen hun- 
dred acres of land owned along its route by the Elyton Land Company. 



300 fefferson Coiuity. 

In this it has been exceedingly successful. Many beautiful residences 
crown the elevations along the line from first to last. 

Belt Railroad. — The object of this line is to distribute heavy freights, 
by the car load, brought into the city by the various trunk lines of road, 
and from the home manufactories to these roads. Warehouses and ele- 
vators are expected to be built at convenient places along the line, as a 
part of the benefit it will confer. The length of the main line is twelve 
miles, but radii in various directions will run out to accommodate public 
demand. The average cost per mile, single track, will be about ;$io,ooo, 
but much of the bed will carry double track. 

All of the leading iivdustries will be connected, by its I'adii, with each 
other, and with the trunk lines. Its value to the growth of the town 
must be incalculable. 

Passenger cars, drawn by dummy engines, will be run over the line. 

The Belt road is the property of the Elyton Land Company. It is 
expected to incorporate the two lines of railroad belonging to this great 
corporation, the Belt and the Highland Avenue, into one concern and give 
it separate management. 

Birtningham & Jones Valley Railroad. — Suburban street railroad 
extension is opening up to settlement a wide territory adjacent to the city 
of Birmingham. The line we here describe is eight miles long, pene- 
trating a region of unsurpassed healthfulness, with abundance of the 
purest water and shade. 

The capital stock is ^60,000. The incorporators are John T. Hefflin, 
Samuel Green, C. C. Brenneman, Robert Warnock, Birmingham ; T. G. 
Bush, Mobile ; P. Resing, Lancaster, Ohio. 

The line begins in the center of the city and runs to Ensley City. 
Ultimately it will proceed to Bessemer. Steam motors will be used. 

East Lake Djintniy Line. — This line was organized as a stock company 
June, 1886. It is intended to promote the interest of the East Lake Land 
Company by connecting their property with the heart of the city. The 
direct line is eight miles long. All of the most modern approved 
appliances will be used to operate this line. It will be built of steel rails, 
and will be heavy enough to carry loaded freight cars. 

Western Valley Street Railroad. — Capital stock is ^50,000. The 
object of this line is to connect the property of the North Birmingham 
Land Company with the center of the city. It will be four miles long. 



Birmingha7!i. 301 

East Biniiingkam Duniniy Line. — This line will connect the center of 
the city with East Birmingham, and the track is now being laid. 

Demcre Transfer Company. — Incorporated October, 1886. Capital 
stock is $15,000. Incorporators are William Berney, B. F. Moore, F. L. 
Demere, A. J. Camp, Walter Moore, and W. M. Bethea, all of Birming- 
ham. 

Other transportation lines to use steam motors have been incorpora- 
ted and will be built in 1887. 

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 

Knights of Pythias, Jefferson Valley Lodge, No. 11. — This lodge was 
organized April, 1874, with eleven members. It now carries one hundred 
and eighteen on its rolls. Its standing, financially and in other respects, 
has always been first-class. Every duty of the order has been met faith- 
fully, and all legitimate claims have been promptly paid. The benevolent 
feature of the organization has been prominent. It maintains an insur- 
ance department, and the policies range from $1,000 to $3,000. In the 
five years of the operation of this department about $15,000 have been 
paid by it. The taking out of a policy is entirely optional with members. 
"Sick benefits," which include accidents, of all kinds, to persons, area 
common enjoyment with all members in good standing. Sick benefits are 
paid direct from the treasury of the local lodge, but the insurance policies 
are paid from the treasury of the Supreme Lodge of the World. These 
pass through the Indianapolis office. 

Cyrene Coinuiandety, No. lO, Knights Templar. — Organized March 14, 
1874, opened April 28 following, for dispatch of business. 

The dispensation issued from the Commandery of the State of Ala- 
bama in conclave at Montgomery. 

The commandery is now prosperous and steadily increasing its mem- 
bership. 

The companions in attendance at the organization were Sir Knights 
J. B. Luckie, E. C; James M. Ware, Generalissimo; Thomas Jeffers, 
Captain General; F. P. O'Brien, Yx^idX^ pro tern.; George M. McLaugh- 
lin, Senior Warden; W. L. Gude, Junior Warden /w /?;«.; Stephen W. 
Dupuy, Treasurer pro tern.; Julius L. Lockwood, Recorder pro tetn. 

The present officers of the commandery are Charles Wheelock, 
Eminent Commander ; Silas Hine, Generalissimo ; H. J. Falls, Captain 



302 Jefferson County. 

General; Thomas Jeffers, Treasurer; George McLaughlin, Senior Warden ; 
William A. Jones, Recorder; George T. Alexander, Sword Bearer; R. 
M. Cunningham, Standard Bearer ; Eli Mullens, Captain of the Guard. 

The Eminent Commanders have been in order as follows : Sir Knight 
J. B. Luckie, W. L. Gude, F. L. Wadsworth, J. L. Lockwood, and the 
present incumbent, Charles Wheelock. 

Binmngham Fraternal Lodge, No. 384, Free ajid Accepted Masons. — 
Established December, 1871, by Charter Members Henry Horton, A. 
Marre, John A. Milner, and Julius L. Lockwood. Organized with seven 
members. Present membership is one hundred and sixty, and the lodge 
is hopeful and flourishing. It is, perhaps, doing more work than any 
other lodge in the State. 

Henry Horton was the first Master, and Dr. George M. Morrow is 
now Master, in his fourth year. 

December, 1885, Dr. Morrow was appointed Grand Junior Deacon 
of the State Lodge, and in December, 1886, was elected Junior Grand 
Warden of the same. 

The following are the present officers of the lodge : James McDon- 
ald, Senior Warden ; George S. Moore, Junior Warden; William Hood, 
Treasurer ; James M. Peteet, Secretary ; William Jones, Senior Deacon ; 
Eli Mullins, Tyler. 

Mr. Mullins has been Tyler since the organization of this lodge, and 
is also Tyler for all the lodges. 

Binmngham Encampt?ient, No. 21, /. 0. 0. F. — E. Erswell, District 
Deputy Grand Patriarch. Officers : W. H. Herrick, Chief Patriarch ; E. 
Erswell, High Priest ; L R. Hochstadter, Senior Warden ; G. R. Ward, 
Scribe; B. Wellman, Treasurer ; M. Murphy, Junior Warden. Member- 
ship seventeen, and prosperous, holding city and county bonds. 

Mineral City Lodge, No. 74. — Organized November 8, 1872, by Dis- 
trict Deputy Grand Master E. P. Jones. 

Charter members : C. F. Enslen, F. A. Duval, B. F. Williams, D. 
A. Johnston, and Jacob Faber. 

Meetings are held weekly, in rooms over First National Bank. Present 
officers are : W. A. Turner, Noble Grand ; B. L. Hibbard, Vice Grand ; 
G. R. Ward, Secretary ; E. Erswell, Treasurer. 

Membership is sixty-eight, and the lodge is in a highly prosperous 
condition. 



Bii'minghani. 303-. 

Finance Committee : C. P. Williamson, W. T. Underwood, and G. 
R. Ward. 

Knights of Honor, Golden Rule Lodge, No. 963. — Organized March 19, 
1878, and reorganized in 1880. This organization is in a highly prosper- 
ous condition. The order numbers seventy-three. Only three members 
have been lost since organization, and these by death, viz: W. L. Scott, 
F. L. Wadsworth, and J. F. Smith. 

The work of this organization in charities has been active. Each 
member is required to carry an insurance on his life for the specific sum- 
of $2,QOO. There are also "sick benefits" for the common benefit of 
members who suffer from accidents. 

The present officers are : W. H. Herrick, Dictator; George R. Ward, 
Vice Dictator; S. D. Cole, Assistant Dictator ; J. B. Simpson, Reporter; 
J. B. Alford, Financial Reporter; George T. Hill, Treasurer; Harry 
Atkins, Guide; T. H. Holt, Chaplain; D. R. Dunlap, Guardian; G. W. 
Morefield, Sentinel. 

This lodge was organized with twelve members only, viz: J. L. 
Lockwood, James M. Ware, James E. Hawkins, J. P. Buggett, R. S. 
Montgomery, F. P. O'Brien, Frank Wadsworth, John Creel, J. B. Luckie, 
Ellis Phelan, Joseph R. Smith, Jr., and George W. Allen. 

Evening Star Lodge, No. i lOO, Knights and Ladies of Honor. — This has 
been a very prosperous lodge. It was organized by Mrs. Sally A. Daw- 
son, starting with fifty members, in 1885. Mrs. Dawson was soon taken 
ill and never returned to her place. Harry E. English was made Secre- 
tary, and O. C. Frazer Protector. 

In a few months from the date of organization the members admitted, 
and ready for admittance, justified an additional lodge. Mr. English, the 
Secretary, therefore, withdrew to organize the Iron City Lodge, No. 1146, 
in April, 1886. He became Secretary of the new lodge, and F. M. Irion- 
Protector. Mr. William Workman took his resigned position. 

The combined membership is three hundred and fifty. The death 
claims paid aggregated $7,000 in the first eighteen months of the life of the 
two lodges. 

Each lodge has a room of its own, and there is a weekly meeting of 
each. 

United Charities. — This organization is non-sectarian. A meeting of 
citizens was called in January, 1884, at the First Methodist Episcopal 



304 Jefferson Coimty. 

Church, South. The attendance was large, and the work of the society 
began at once. 

Mrs. J. F. Smith was elected President; Mrs. A. O. Lane, Vice- 
President, and John G. Smith, Secretary. At the next election of officers 
Mrs. John C. Morrow was made President; the other officers remaining 
the same except that Mrs. R. H. Sterrett was added. 

A reorganization was effected in January, 1886. Mrs. W. J. Pierce 
was elected President; Mrs. J. C. Henley, Vice-President; Mrs. Samuel 
J. UUman, Second Vice-President; Mrs. L. L. Scott, Secretary, and Mr. 
John G. Smith, Treasurer. There was a board of directors which was com- 
posed as follows : Mrs. W. T. Underwood, Protestant Episcopal ; Mrs. 
J. C. Dozier, Methodist ; Mrs. William Berney, Presbyterian ; Mrs. J. R. 
Hochstadter, Jewish Congregation ; Mrs. Charles Whelan, Roman Catho- 
lic; Mrs. J. P. Tillman, Christian Church; Mrs. VV. C. Denson, Cumber- 
land Presbyterian ; Mrs. John W. Johnston, Baptist. 

In October following, a reelection of officers was ordered. Mrs. Pierce, 
the President, was reelected but declined to serve. Mrs. L. L. Scott, 
thereupon became her successor. Mrs. T. O. Smith was elected Secre- 
tary. The other officers were retained. 

This most efficient and timely organization is entirely the work of the 
ladies of Birmingham. Their ultimate object was the erection of a 
charity hospital. Meanwhile they have been active in the administration 
of practical relief to the needy. Thus far Birmingham has been remark- 
ably exempt from suffering poor. 

The scheme for the erection of the hospital has taken shape. A 
board of incorporators has taken the subject up, and some of the most 
prosperous business men comprise it. Robert Jemison, William Berney, 
E. W. Linn, John G. Smith, Samuel J. Ullman, J. T. Nixon, R. W. 
Boland, and Dr. Bryce Hughes, are their names. In connection with the 
efforts of these gentlemen there is a board of control composed of the 
following ladies: Mesdames W. T. Underwood, W. J. Pierce, I. Y. Sage, 
J. C. Henley, L. L. Scott, Samuel J. Ullman, C. E. Slade, T. D. Smith, 
and J. W. Johnston. The subscriptions now assure its completion. 

Young Men s Christian Association. — In August, 1884, five young men 
of Birmingham met together, in the bedroom of one of their number, and 
agreed to form a Young Men's Christian Association, and set to work to 
secure members. In a few weeks the organization was perfected by the 
election of the following Board of Managers: F. S. Wilson, G. W. Nor- 
wood, Win. T. Wilson, L. M. Barclift, Charles A. Merrill, J. H. Mohns, 



Birmingham. 305 

W. W. Barclay, J. H. Lee, S. B. Johnston, Sinclair Bennie, F. P. Fos- 
ter, W. K. Simpson, and C. C. Steward. 

The association first occupied a room at No. 19O9 Second avenue, 
jointly with the Christian Church, which had just organized. Soon they 
increased the number of their meetings and fitted up a reading room. 
Their efforts met with encouragement from the best citizens, and a work 
for young men, by young men, was successfully inaugurated. Beside 
holding meetings in their own rooms, the young men initiated services at 
the city and county jails on Sundays, which still continue an interesting 
feature of their work. 

On the first of November, 1885, they rented four rooms in Roden's 
Block, two of which were converted into a beautiful little hall and another 
into a reading room, and an effort made to provide all that is called for by 
a Young Men's Christian Association, moral instruction, intellectual cul- 
ture, social amusement, physical development, and spiritual welfare. 
These rooms continue the attractive resort of young men, and are 
open to all from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m. Charles A. Merrill was the first Gen- 
eral Secretary. W. O. Marble, Jr., served a short term, and he was fol- 
lowed by Mr. W. W. Barclay, who held that responsible position until 
near the close of the second year. The election at that time resulted in 
the selection of the following Board, who are now in office : James A. 
Stratton, J. H. Mohns, R. M. Holman, T. B. Alford, B. W. Eddy, W. 
K. Simpson, H. W. Barkhau, J. L. Loftis, S. B. Johnston, R. R. Brown, 
Charles A. Merrill, Dr. W. E. B. Davis, and W. W. Barclay ; General 
Secretary, W. G. Chamberlin. 

The second anniversary meeting was held in O'Brien's Opera House 
on the evening of November 28, 1886. The attendance was very large, 
and impressive addresses were made, and the third year's work began 
with renewed vigor. 

November, 1886, they published the first volume of a monthly maga- 
zine, which is " devoted to the best interests of the young men of Ala- 
bama." The publishing committee is J. A. Stratton, W. E. B. Davis, 
and B. W. Eddy. It is a neat and attractive pamphlet, and destined to 
do good work for the association. 

Binnvigkam Press Club. — One of Birmingham's most notable and 
important local organizations is the Press Club, an association composed 
of the leading newspaper men in the city. This club was organized Jan- 
uary I, 1887, and its birth celebrated with a grand press banquet, served 
at Gasser's. The officers of the club are: J. L. Watkins, editor of the 



3o6 Jeffei'son Cojinty. 

Age, President ; George W. Cruikshank, editor of the Chronicle, Vice- 
President; J. D. Ponder, city editor of the Chronicle, Secretary; W. L. 
Hawley, city editor of the Age, Treasurer; F. C. Morehead, R. H. 
Watkins, C. M. Hayes, Goldsmith, Barnard, West, Directors. 

The club has twenty-three members, and is in a flourishing condition. 

Women's Cliristiaii Temperance Union. — In the autumn of 1884 Mrs. 
Sally F. Chapin, of Charleston, South Carolina, reached Birmingham in 
her course of a general canvass of the Southern States in the interest of 
temperance reform. She was superintendent of the Southern depart- 
ment of the national temperance movement known under this name. 
Mrs. Chapin succeeded in organizing a branch of the Union here, con- 
sisting of twenty-three members to start on. The number soon grew 
threefold. The work of the organization in Birmingham is to disseminate 
temperance literature, promote temperance meetings and lectures, and 
excite general inquiry into the consequences of intemperance. The 
organization is active and untiring in its work, but never offends those 
opposed to its principles by precipitate or unreasonable measures. 

The original organization was made with Mrs. George L. Thomas, 
President ; Mrs. Godden, Mrs. Pierce, Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Dozier, Vice- 
Presidents ; Mrs. J. P. Tillman, Corresponding Secretary; Mrs. Robert 
Jemison, Recording Secretary, and Mrs. E. M. Prine, Treasurer. 

Superintendents have systematized the work of this branch of the 
Union with much enthusiasm. Committees have the press, the Sabbath 
school, scientific instruction, and other themes for elaboration and enforce- 
ment. Wholesome influences already appear from its efforts. 

The present organization retains the original officers, except that Mrs. 
Rose has moved away. Mrs. W. H. Jeffries has been made Recording 
Secretary, Mrs. C. B. Spencer Vice-President, and Mrs. J. P. Tillman 
Corresponding Secretary. The State Convention of the Union was held 
in Birmingham in 1885. 

Yard Masters' Mutual Benefit Association. — This is a branch of the 
national association, with headquarters at Indianapolis, Indiana. The 
object is to insure members against death and accidents. The association 
•discountenances strikes. Its influence is acknowledged by the railroads as 
in the interest of peace and conservatism. 

There are now sixteen members in the Birmingham branch, which 
was organized April, 1885, with only eight charter members. J. L. 
Welch is President. 



Birmingham. 307 

The annual assessment of members is $2. The sum derived is 
divided, a part going to pay current expenses, the surplusage standing sub- 
ject to meet insurance risks. Insurance is limited to $1,000. All finan- 
cial transactions are conducted by the home office at Indianapolis. 

Order of Railway Conductors, Division No. 186. — Organized Sep- 
tember 20, 1885. This is a select body of railroad men organized for pro- 
tection, in a general way, of its members. The division is very pros- 
perous, numbering at present thirty-seven men. The number is thus 
small because the passenger-train conductors are members of divisions 
located at the termini of their runs, whereas Birmingham is on middle 
ground. 

The charter members on organization were C. F. Shumate, John T. 
Alexander, H. J. Crenshaw, J. M. Tuck, R. G. De TreviUe, Charles 
Flanders, W. D. Hester, S. L. Lineberry, C. E. Triggs, D. F. Hood, T. 
A. Cole, T. J. Howell. 

The present officers are : John T. Alexander, Chief; J. M. Tuck, 
Assistant ; E. T. Cox, Secretary and Treasurer ; J. B. Read, Senior Con- 
ductor ; Henry Le Roy, Junior Conductor. 

There is an optional insurance feature. The policy is arbitrarily fixed 
at $2, 500, neither more nor less. The members are all assessed to pay the 
mortuary dues of the division. Dues are paid at the general office in 
Chicago. Sickness or accidents not producing death are such cases as fall 
under the local management and care of the division. Widows and 
orphans are also attended to by the local authority. 

Phanix Lodge, Knights of Pythias, No. 25. — This Lodge was moved 
to Birmingham from Oxmoor, where it had been organized under the 
name of Shade's Valley Lodge. The object of the organization is to 
furnish optional insurance and sick benefits to its members. The insurance 
policies run from one thousand to three thousand dollars. 

The Alabama Club. — Was established by eight gentlemen, originally 
as the Shakespeare Club, April 4, 1884. The club was organized by 
Joseph A. Shakespeare, Mayor, at that time, of New Orleans (and for 
him it was named) ; John T. Hardie, a prominent capitalist of New 
Orleans; J. M. Lewis, of Talladega; Joseph F. Johnston, President of 
the Alabama National Bank; James Spence, E. W. Rucker, Bernard Pey- 
ton, and T. B. Lyons, of Birmingham. T. B. Lyons was made President, 
and has filled the office ever since. James Spence is Secretary. 



5o8 JcJ]erson Coimty. 

The membership at present is about one hundred and fifty, and could 
readily be extended to five hundred. No unpleasant occurrences have 
marred its history. 

The name was changed, in July, to the Alabama Club. The change 
was made more for the purpose of expressing the enlarged influence it 
had attained, and the suggestion to make it came from Mr. Shakespeare 
himself. 

A clubhouse has been built for them by the Elyton Land Company 
at Lakeview. They have the gratuitous use of it as long as they wish. 
This house is used as their summer quarters. The club has contracted 
for a handsome building, five stories high, now being built for them on 
Twenty-first street, between Second and Third avenues. When done it 
will be one of the handsomest buildings in Birmingham. 

The German Society. — The name indicates that this is an organization 
of Germans resident in Birmingham. The organization was made in 1884, 
and in 1886 there were seventy members. The original object of the asso- 
ciation was to cultivate the science of music and art among the members. 
The population, of the German nationality, so increased in the city that the 
society petitioned the public school authorities to teach their native tongue. 
It was agreed that if the city would pay half the salary of the professor 
engaged to give the instruction the society would make up the other half. 
The new branch of study soon proved so attractive that the city assumed 
the whole expense of instruction in it. 

The officers of the society arranged an imposing Mardi Gras display 
at the celebration of its anniversary in 1886, which paraded the streets 
to the delight of the city. 

E. Lesser is President; H. Pearl, Vice-President; Paul Sieg, Secre- 
tary, and C. T. Rambow, Treasurer. 

Grand Army of the Republic, George A. Custer Post, No. 49. — Organ- 
ized, with thirteen members, December, 1885, by Colonel E. S. Jones, 
Department Commander of Nashville. Officers installed were E. N. 
Edmonds, Commander; W. H. Hunter, S. V. C. ; S. H. Morgan, J. V. 
C. ; F. G. Sheppard, Adjutant; W. M. St. Clair, O. M. ; A. J. Silas, 
Chaplain. 

Knights of Labor, District Assembly No. 173. — Organized October 
16, 1886, comprising twelve assemblies. C. H. Bowling, D. R. .S. Box 
No. 407. 



Birmiiighani. 309 

Labor Assembly, No. 5,009, was organized Decembers, 1885. Labor 
Assemblies, Nos. 5,337, 8,058, 8,059, 8,758, 8,334, and 9,331 have been 
organized since, and also three others not yet numbered. A State Assem- 
bly was recently formed in this city that has jurisdiction over the order 
throughout the entire State. 

The order is gaining in members, and has at its head men of sound 
discernment and good standing in the community in which they live. 
They have a local organ. 

There have been no serious disputes between the order and capital, 
now unadjusted, except in the Iron Age Publishing Company and the 
Eureka Furnace Company. Non-Union men are employed by these cor- 
porations. The order has taken no political course as yet, but supported 
a candidate for mayor of Birmingham at the election of 1886, who was 
unsuccessful. 



PLACES OF AMUSEMENT AND HOTELS. 

O'Briefts Opera House. — Was commenced in May, 1882, and the 
following November was opened to the public. The building covers a 
space of 100 X 140 feet, and 89 feet high, and is well stocked with 
scenery, etc. The seating capacity is about 1,200. Mr. O'Brien will, 
during the year 1887, enlarge the capacity, and refurnish the house. 

The proprietor and manager is consistent in his efforts to command 
the best patronage by supplying the best plays of good companies. He 
is very liberal in allowing the use of his handsome house for public conve- 
niences as occasions arise. 

The Casino. — This establishment is well conducted by its proprietor, 
Mr. J. M. Caldwell. It is a brick building, and the interior is arranged 
conveniently to seat, perhaps, 1,600 people. The seats are classed, and 
paid for accordingly. 

Academy of Music. — To be built in the summer of 1887. 

Tlte Caldivell Hotel Company. — Incorporated February, 1886. This 
corporation undertook to build the earliest first-class hotel for Birmingham. 
The plan of the building is si.x stories, of a very chaste and attractive 
architecture. It rests on an elevation commanding a wide view. Tl tre 
will be an observatory on the tower of the building. The architect is 



3IO Jefferson County. 

Edouard Sidel, a resident of the city. Dr. H. M. Caldwell subscribed the 
lot, on which his handsome residence then stood, for the site. He is also 
the largest individual stockholder, and is President of the company. 
Joseph F. Johnston, President of the State National Bank, is Secretary 
and Treasurer. 

The incorporators were H. M. Caldwell, John W. Johnston, A. B. 
Johnston, Joseph F. Johnston, William A. Walker, Jr., E. W. Rucker, 
Willis J. Milner, and John B. Boddie, all of Birmingham. 

Among other good hotels are the Florence, Richards, Wilson, Metro- 
politan, Commercial, Morris Avenue, Belmont, Brunswick, First Avenue, 
and Oswald. Mr. F. P. O'Brien will build one adjoining his Opera House, 
and a corporation will build another in the summer of 1887. 




CHAPTER IX. 

The bench anb bar.. 



JUDGES. 

\l/ Q rnM<^<d Though not, by right of nativity, an Alabamian, the subject of 

' y' I y ' this sketch, from infancy to the'grave, lived and prospered in this 

world's honors and its goods in Jefferson County. 

Born in Kentucky in 1816, he came to Alabama in 1817 and gathered his first intui- 
tions in the beautiful border land of North Alabama, in Madison and Lawrence 
Counties. 

Little is known of his early instruction in Jefferson, where he received his aca- 
demic education, but some of his old schoolmates still surviving remember him as a 
quiet, resolute, discreet, and brave boy, neither very social nor yet repulsive in his 
manners ; always modest and yet ambitious ; just the kind of boy to possess a magnet- 
ism over his fellows and to keep on a little higher plane than they. These character- 
istics were prominent in his whole career, showing themselves in the old man with 
greater distinctness than when, in the noon of his vigor, they were kept in abeyance 
by stronger passions and more urgent thoughts. 

The education of the young man at college was in harmony with his natural incli- 
nations. It was gained upon the medium ground between the puritanic and the chiv- 
alric. It was encompassed by the golden mean of discreet conservatism. This was 
the path into which he was led and kept while in the classic walls of St. Joseph's Col- 
lege, Bardstown, Ky. 

In that day and time it was not easy for a young, ambitious, and brilliant man, 
with no special religious bias, to escape personal difficulties and encounters. But, 
though notedly brave and chivalrio, his walk was held with such shrewd discretion, in 
his chosen path of peace, that strife and bitterness seemed to keep afar off from him. 



3 1 2 Jefferson County. 



Kentucky has furnished Alabama some noted men, among the number the two 
Baylors, both men of culture and high intellect— if not the gift of genius. In the office 
of W. K. Baylor, Esq., young Mudd received his first lessons in the lore of law books. 
Doubtless the teacher has more to do with character building than we are apt to 
imagine, and if he be a man of strong will and magnetism, the young under his tuition 
being of the plastic kind, will receive impressions which mature into habits as lasting 
as life. Young Mudd's opening career showed the hand of the master. If the line of 
Wadsworth be true, that 

'• The child is father to the mau." 

we are enabled by having a knowledge of the boy to infer the history of the man's 
whole life. We have here known the man, and by reasoning backward 
we have here learned the boy. He was well taught from earliest manhood. 
At the age of twenty-three we find him in our legislative halls, by the side of Jere 
Clemens, of Madison, and L. P. Walker, of Lawrence, and W. L. Yancey, of Coosa, 
together with a brilliant galaxy of young " solons," many of whom became, in 
after years, great in the forum and field — jurists, lawyers, soldiers, and literati. From 
this early stage, on to the close of his life, honors of one kind or other awaited him. 
For three terms he sat in the legislature, and by his wisdom and legal acumen was in 
the front rank of those who shaped the destinies of our people. Stepping from the 
legislative hall he took the State solicitorship, with its arduous responsibilities. From 
the solicitorship he stepped into the circuit judgship. From the bench, which he 
held through many popular elections for near thirty years with undiminished confi- 
dence, the strong arm of death only removed him. No Alabamian ever pursued more 
remarkable a career than Judge Mudd From earliest manhood popular and admired, 
till the last flickering of life's spark, he retained his hold on the affection of the masses 
and the respect and admiration of our most distinguished citizens. 

His name is now a household word in Jefferson, Walker, Marion, Blount, and other 
counties, where the people's differences for so long were tried before him. His memory 
is part of the history of these hill country people. His individuality was of so marked 
a character that it amounted almost to genius. So eminently practical and just were 
his motives that it was a habit with him to sit apparently idle, in the deepest musing 
for hours, analyzing the cases that were to be tried at his tribunal, researching for the 
bottom principle of the matter in dispute, delving down beneath the cloak of legal 
technicalities and prying into the heart of it for the silent equities hidden beneath. 
He loved justice! A few weeks before his death he said to the writer of this sketch : 
" The judgship is a thorny honor. I have often been in perfect anguish when cases 
of great crime came before me. Night after night I have read and studied the evi- 
dence for and against the prisoner, and have always dreaded lest I might cause the 
destruction of an innocent person. In trials of the rights of property 1 have studied 
hard the best authorities for weeks and months, and yet when the case had come up 
for judgment I have found my mind and heart deeply pained and in a struggle of 
doubt when I saw the legal triumphing over the equitable, and I, the judge, irresolute 
as to how I should decide. No case, however insignificant, has ever been set aside by 
me without giving it a fair chance." 

Conscientiousness and magnanimity are twin brothers. No heart can be but good 
that loves justice. Judge Mudd's bitterest enemy had no just cause to fear unfairness 
at his hands when arraigned before him in the court-room, and this spirit of magna- 
nimity and equity, of loving kindness and charity was the corner-stone of that splendid 
temple of the people's confidence, which the storuis of opposition and the cankering, 



Biographical. 3 1 3 



sapping current of near forty years vicissitudes of the public service could not over- 
throw. It was founded not on the sands of popular applause, but rather on the rock 
of justice. 

Judge Mudd ijas eminently a business man. Unlike other great lawyers he did 
not neglect his own affairs while immersed in those of other men. For many years he 
was a prosperous merchant, and accumulated a good round fortune in the mercantile 
pursuit, with J. B. Earle as partner. W. S. Brown and William Hood, two of Bir- 
mingham's now most progressive, active and live merchants, were among their clerks, 
and received their business education and tutelage under his direction. 

To him is due much of Birmingham's material development. In the early life of 
the city he was a shrewd and potent factor. To him the city owes the credit of build- 
ing her first public inn, the Florence House, worthy the name of hotel. In this act he 
illustrated his abiding faith in the Magic City, where he had ventured much of his life's 
hard-won earnings. When the fate of the Magic City was still trembling in the bal- 
ance, and other much richer men than he would not venture even in a stock company 
upon such a cloudy sea, he boldly cast the die of his own fortune. The success of the 
venture confirms not only his foresight but also his practical common sense. 

Judge Mudd married, in early life, Miss Florence Earle, a descendant of the family \/^ 
of Earles, who were pioneers in Jeffer.son County settlement. They reared a large 
family. Their imposing residence, resting on a wooded knoll in the valley on the 
skirts of Elyton, is one of the most beautiful of Southern homes. A happy domestic 
life, where sons grew to manhood in the nurture of honorable example and sound pre- 
cept, and where daughters, " polished like the pillars of the temple," spread joy, 
reigned there. The children now living all reside in Birmingham. They are Mrs. Dr. 
M. H. Jordan, Mrs. William A. Walker, Jr., J. P. Mudd, a leading man of business, 
and a maiden. Miss S. E. Mudd. 

Judge Mudd departed this life September 22, 1884. He was a communicant in the 
Episcopal Church. His remains were interred in the family lot at Elyton by the side 
of his wife. The demonstrations of public grief on the occasion were becoming to the 
deep and sincere hold he held on the public affections. 

Lines on the Death of Judge W. S. Mudd. 
Another watchworn sentinel 

Has fallen from his post, 
Where through long years he guarded well, 

Himself and Right a host. 

A brave, good man, who dared to do 

What he thought right and best, 
He passed each dread ordeal through 

With honor on his crest. 

Unbought by bribing friend or foe, 

Unswerved by frown or smile, 
To justice pledged, for weal or woe, 

He nursed and wrought no guile. 

With all the prophet's hate of wrong. 

The prophet's love of right, 
Without the prophet's gift of song. 

He glimpsed his rare foresight. 



3 1 4 Jefferson County. 



Albeit unsmit of genius' gift, 

Like inspiration rose 
His sphynx of common sense, and swift 

Brought argument to its^close, 

" Mens sibi conscia recti " was 
The legend of his life; 
It bound his heart like triple brass 
Alike in peace and strife. 

And now he sleeps ; each pain, each ache 

Of heart and brain no more ; 
But faithful mem'ry keeps awake 

His precious ashes o'er. 

We mourn him — not as one in bloom 

Of usefulness returned — 
His work half done — to his " long home," 

But as a stay is mourned. 

Yes, mourn him as a pillar missed 

From our palladium, while 
Most needed — for he kept his tryst 

With duty without guile. 

And fell, all shattered by his toil. 

Not broke by " folly's vails : " 
Crushed like a victor by hi.s spoil ; 

Worn out by labor's ails. 

So sleeps the noble heart in dust ; 

But what he did lives on. 
And wins for him this greeting : " Just 
And faithful one, well done." 
Leeds, Ala. Samuel L. Robertson. 



J_L_ T lio-flin is a native of Walton County, Georgia, and was born August 
*^VV )• /1\7"V 13, ISL'O. 

He is a son of Wyatt and Sarah Stell Heflin, the former a native of Orange County, 
North Carolina, and the latter of Hancock County, Georgia. On the paternal side he is 
of English and Scotch descent, and his early ancestors came to America with Lord 
Granville, before the Revolution. On the maternal side he is of Huguenot extraction, 
and his mother's ancestors were early settlers of Virginia. 

His parents were married in Georgia, and lived there until their immigration to 
Alabama in 1833 and their setttlementin Randolph County. They resided in Randolph 
up to the time of their respective deaths, the father dying in ISdO and mother in 1869. 
The former was a planter and merchant, and served in the legislatures of both Georgia 
and Alabama. 

There were eight children in the family, of whom John T. was the third in order 
of birth. He received an academic education in Georgia, and in 1839 began the study 
of law in Chambers County, Alabama, in the office of Steiner & Phillips, and after a 



Biographical. 315 



faithful course of two years application to study was admitted to the practice in 1841, 
and has had a continuous and active professional career of nearly fifty years, and in 
this long period has witnessed great changes in the character of his country. For the 
first sixteen years, succeeding the time of his admission to the bar, he practiced his 
profession, alone, in Randolph County, and served as a member of the State Senate dur- 
ing the session of the legislature of 1851-52. In 1857, or about that time, he moved to 
Jacksonville, the county seat of Calhoun County, and was associated with William H. 
Forney, now a member of Congress, for three years. In 18U0 he moved to Talladega, 
and in the second year thereafter was elected circuit judge, and remained on the bench 
until 18(55. During the war he was in active service and belonged to the Topographical 
Corps, and planned the route for many marching commands. After the war he 
resumed the practice of law in Talladega and continued there for seventeen years, and 
in the year 1875 was a member of the State Constitutional Convention, called for the 
purpose of forming a new constitution. He took an important part in the delibera- 
tions of that body. He first came to Birmingham in April, 1882, and became senior 
member of the firm of Heflin, Bowdon & Knox. This association continued until the 
death of Mr. Bowdon, and the firm is now known as Heflin & Knox, the latter being 
one of the leading resident attorneys at the Talladega bar. Mr. Heflin has devoted 
himself almost exclusively to his profession, and has won some distinguished triumphs 
by his pleadings in behalf of clients. In 1886 he was before the State Convention of 
the Democratic party as a candidate for the nomination for Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State, and believes he received more votes in the convention 
than his sole competitor, but his opponent was, nevertheless, declared the successful 
candidate. Mr. Heflin is a Bourbon Democrat, and believes most fully in the princi- 
ples of that party. 

He was married in 1862 to Mrs. Bowdon, of Talladega. Her maiden name was 
Sarah E. Cliilton. She was a native of Kentucky, and died June 1, 187^. 

Mr. Heflin is a Free Mason. He feels as one who has been occupied with the 
highest employment of which his mental gifts were capable, and looks back over his 
life with emotions of reasonable satisfaction. Being yet vigorous, for his years, he con- 
tinues to reap the rewards of his eminent ability. 

J-jUj. n rnrvrrrjui belongs to one of the oldest and best known families of Jef- y 
^'/V V /'l'^' '*-'«' ferson County. He was born on December 31, 1838. He 
was born at the residence of his grandmother, situated about two and one-half miles 
north of the Elyton Court House, and it is still standing on Village Creek. Had he been 
born at his home in Elyton the strange co-incidence of the birth of himself and his wife 
in the same house would have occurred. This was owing to the fact that W. A. Walker, 
the latter's father, bought bis father's residence. His father, Hugh Morrow, came from 
South Union, Ky., and settled in Elyton September, 1825. He was, however, a native 
of Abbeville District, South Carolina. Hugh Morrow's mother was a Calhoun, and a 
relative of John C. Calhoun. 

When Hugh Morrow first came to Jefierson County he taught school at Jonesboro, 
now Bessemer. There are still pupils living in this immediate locality whom he taught. 
He continued to teach school until 1S33, and in that year was appointed circuit clerk 
for Jefferson County by Judge L. L. Perry, and was an officer of the county in that 
capacity up to 1858, an unbroken succession of twenty-five years. The records now on 
file at the courthouse are models of neatness, beauty of handwriting and perfect cor- 
rectness, as kept by him. Out of the many thousands of pages of writing he did,, 
during all this time, not a single interlineation, eifacement, erasure, or blemish can be^ 



3 1 6 Jeffe)'S07i County. 



discovered. As an officer of integrity and honesty he was irreproachable. In 1858 he 
retired to his farm, near Trussville, in this county, where he has since lived. He was 
born in February, ISO.i, and has now, therefore, passed his eighty-second year, and ia 
still vigorous and hearty. He has reared a family of thirteen children, ten of whom 
are now living in this county. The Morrows have taken rank among its most influ- 
ential people in every era of the county's history. 

His mother, Margaret Holmes, was a Tennesseean by birth and came to this county, 
when an infant, with her family. She was married here. Her father and mother, 
James and Sarah Killough Holmes, subsequently moved to Pontotoc County, Missis- 
sippi. She is still living, and has passed her seventieth year. 

The children were Harriet L., AViltiam S., Mrs. Julia Praiter, Dr. George M., Wool- 
8ey P., Catherine Frazier, AlphonsoR., Josephine, now Mrs. Dr. J. C.Jones, and Milton. 
Catherine is the only one living beyond the bounds of the county. 

John C. Morrow first went to school in Elyton to the Rev. F. M. Grace, and also to 
Jacob H. Baker, one of the most thorough educators that ever lived in Jefferson 
County. This was the finishing touch to his scholastic training, and was concluded in 
18.54. At this time he began reading law in Tuscaloosa under Judge Peck, who after- 
ward, in the year 1868, was Chief Justice of this State. In 1856 he went to the Lebanon, 
Tennessee, Law School, and among those of his schoolmates who have since become 
distinguished, are Col. G. W. Hewitt, of Birmingham ; Judge Reuben Gaines, now on 
the Supreme Bench of Texas; L^nited States Judge Jackson, of Tennessee, and Col. 
Enoch Ensley, President of the Pratt Coal and Iron Company. He graduated in Feb- 
ruary, 1857, and on his way home passed through Montgomery, where he obtained hia 
license to practice law. Judge Samuel F. Rice was then Chief Justice. He practiced 
in Elyton from 1857 to 1865, and was a partner of Col. Hewitt from 1859 to 1866. In 
1862 he went from JefTerson County as First Lieutenant of Company G, Twenty-eighth 
Alabama Regiment of Infantry. He resigned liis office in September, 1862, on account 
of failure of his health. He was, prior to this, in the campaign through Kentucky. 
When he regained his health he rejoined the Confederate Army, February, 1863, by 
enlisting as a private in Major Lewis' Battalion of Cavalry. In August of that year he 
was elected to the State Legislature by the people of his native county, and served dur- 
ing the years from 1863 to 1865 inclusive. On August 7, 1865, several months after the 
close of the war, he was appointed Probate Judge of Jefferson County by Lewis E. 
Parsons, Provisional Governor of this State. In May, 1866, he was elected to the posi- 
tion by the people, and re-elected from 1868 and successively thereafter up to and 
including 1884. In the last named year he resigned, and has since lived the life of a 
private citizen. Socially, Judge Morrow is beloved by all his friends and greatly 
esteemed by all his acquaintances. He is noted for his generosity and kindness of 
nature. As a lawyer he is possessed of considerable ability ; as a judge he was just, 
and gave great satisf.iction. He has alwaj's been a friend of the people, and no man 
has ever lived in the county who has enjoyed greater popularity. 

Judge Morrow has had much happiness in his domestic relations. He was married 
in 1859 to Miss Mary, daughter of W. A. Walker, of Elyton. He has seven children 
living and two dead. The names of the former are Emma C, now Mrs. J. J. Cahalan ; 
Nettie, now Mrs. Dr. Ledbetter ; Fannie S., Mamie, Hugh, Katie, and Willie, all of 
whom are living in Birmingham. 

Judge Morrow is a Knight Templar Mason. Most of the members of his family 
belong to the M. E. Church, South. 

He is in comfortable circumstances, and is one, among many, who have profited by the 
great development which has taken place during the past few years in his native county. 



Biographical. 3 1 7 

Thn/nac PnKKc °'*® '^^ "'® most eminent law3'eiis and jurists of the State of 
I r^U/lldb V^UDDb, ^ia},ajjja_ ig a native of Raleigh, N. C, and son of Thomas 
and Sarah Boone Cobbs, both natives of the same State. 

The father of our subject was a cultivated, learned gentleman, and also a manufac- 
turer and planter. He was a man of marked influence, socially and politically; a dem- 
ocrat of the sttictest sect, he was elected mayor of Raleigh several terms over his 
whig competitor, Hon. Western Gales, and that, too, when the whig party in the city 
was overwhelmingly in the majority. Captain Cobbs removed to Alabama in the 
winter of 1841 and died in the following September. 

The mother of our subject was a daughter of Colonel Joseph Boone, of Revolu- 
tionary fame, whose lineage is traced to the early colonists of Virginia. 

Chancellor Cobbs enjoyed superior educational advantages until he reached his 
fourteenth year, when the loss of his father and the embarrassed pecuniary condition 
of his mother precluded the possibility of a college or university course of training. 
Fortunately, however, his father had left him an excellent library, and his studious 
habits, coupled with superior attainments of his early youth in the classics and math- 
ematics, enabled him, through the medium of books, to acquire what was equivalent 
to an excellent university course without the distinction of a university degree. His 
early environments, as well as his taste and ambition, naturally inclined him to the 
profession of law. Under the tutelage of his brother, Hon. James Cobbs, of Mobile, 
he was prepared for his chosen profession, and in 1856 he was admitted to the bar by 
Judge John D. Moore. The period usually consumed by young lawyers in waiting for 
practice and acquiring experience, in this instance, was filled with a succession of 
brilliant successes. From his first entrance into the field he was eminently successful 
in buililing up a large and lucrative practice. In 1867, at the fall term of the Choctaw 
County Circuit Court, Hon. James Cobbs presiding, a very important murder case was 
tried, and, as one of the attorneys for the defense, our subject made the leading argu- 
ment, which stamped him in the public mind as one of the most capable and distin- 
guished criminal lawyers in the State. 

For many years he was associated with that distinguished lawyer, Robert H. Smith, 
attending to their practice in Sumter County, which relation continued until the death 
of Colonel Smith in 1878. In 1880 he was elected to the office of Chancellor of the 
Western Division of Alabama, and his administration of the duties of that important 
trust was so satisfactory that in 1886 he was re-elected without opposition. The follow- 
ing extract from the Montgomery Advertiser is a fitting tribute to his talents, and, so 
far from being one of those highly-tinted eulogies with which the press is too apt to 
abound, it is only a modest endorsement of rare and eminent worth : 

" This able, faithful, and judicious officer was nominated for a second term by the 
convention of the Western Chancery Division. He has established himself so 
thoroughly by his fair and impartial decisions, and by his uniform courtesy to the bar 
and people, as to prevent any thought of opposition, and he receives, as he deserves, 
the unanimous endorsement of the convention. The chancellor is regarded by all who 
know him as a fair and impartial judge ; laborious and painstaking in every case, and 
is regarded in the State as one of her most eminent judges." 

Chancellor Cobbs was united in marriage in 1850, with Miss Lucy L., daughter of 
George and Margaret Thom, of Virginia. This union has been blessed with thee chil- 
dren ; Thomas D. is a prominent lawyer in Texas, James B., the cashier of the Berney 
National Bank, is one of the most promising young financiers in the South, and Nellie, 
the wife of Prof. J. H. Phillips, who is an accomplished lady, and noted for her superior 
musical talents. 



3 1 8 Jefferson County. 



Chancellor Cobbs became a resident of Birmingham in 1883, and ranks as one of 
the " Magic City's" most cultivated and eminent citizens. He is a member of the 
Episcopal Church. 

rnlh^h^ll T Dort'^r '^^^ bom in Shelby County, Alabama, in 1825. His 
' ' / \' \ ancestry is traced to colonial times of the " Old 

Dominion" State, where his grandparents, on both his father's and mother's side, 
were born. 

His father, Mitchell A. Porter, came with his parents, at a very early period, to 
Tennessee, where he studied medicine at Knoxville, subsequently immigrating to Ala- 
bama during the Indian period, locating at Montevallo, Shelby County, where he 
practiced his profession until his death. 

The mother of our subject, Mary Porter, nee Wade, came with her parents to 
Shelby County, Alabama, from Virginia in the early days of the State. After the 
death of her husband she removed with her family to Jefferson County (where her 
parents had previously removed), and located near the present site of Birmingham. 
Subsequently she married Thomas Adkins, one of the " old time " merchants of Elyton, 
and resided there until her death in 1856. By her first marriage she left two children, 
Mitchell T. and Corrilla, wife of William A. Walker. 

The subject of this biography received an academic education, graduating from the 
University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Deciding upon the legal profession, he entered 
the office of the late Judge William S. Mudd, where he studied diligently until he was 
licensed to practice in 1850. His practice was commenced at Elyton, where, for some 
time, he was associated with the late Hon. Alburto Martin. 

In 1861 he entered the Confederate service as Captain of Company C, Twentieth 
Alabama Infantry, and remained in active service until the spring of 1864, when, having 
attained the rank of lieutenaut-colonel of his regiment, he was forced, by failing health, 
to resign. Judge Porter was in some of the most severe engagements of the war ; his 
regiment participated in the Kentucky expedition, until reaching Covington, under 
General Kirby Smith, and also in the battles of Port Hudson, Champion Hills, and 
for two months was besieged in Vicksburg, his company never being released from the 
trenches, and lo.sing heavily. 

After the fall of that city he returned home on parole and found his name announced 
for State Senator for the district comprising Shelby and Jeflferson Counties. He was 
elected and served one term. 

Judge Porter continued in practice in Elyton until 1881, when, upon the removal 
of the courthouse, he became a resident of Birmingham, where he continued to prac- 
tice until November, 1884, when he was appointed Judge of Probate by Governor 
O'Neal, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge John C. Morrow. 
In August, 1886, he was elected by the people for a term of six years. 

Although over sixty years old his age sits lightly upon him, and he is ever busily 
engaged with the important and arduous duties pertaining to his trust. The ease with 
which he dispatches the vast amount of business which is brought before him seems to 
indicate that he has many more years of usefulness in store. 

True to every trust, with fine legal attainments, a recorci as an honest and impar- 
tial judge, and, withal, a generous and true Christian gentleman, he is sincerely admired 
and respected by the whole people. 

Judge Porter was united in marriage in 1853 with Miss J. Catherine Martin, a 
daughter of Colonel John M. Martin, a well-known resident of JefTerson County. 



Biographical. 321 



They have seven children now living, Mrs. Sarah E. Hunley, Mary C, Jennie, John 
M., a West Point graduate, Mitchell A., William A., and Thomas W. 

Judge Porter is a member of the Episcopal Church and his wife of the Baptist 
denomination. 

11 Q CharnO is a .son of William and Lucy G. Sharpe, the latter's maiden name ■ 
/ * ) ' y I IN being Lucy Reese, The former was a native of Richmond, Va., 
and the latter of Lynchburg. After marriage they remained in the State until 1832, 
and then came to Alabama, and settled near Decatur, in Morgan County. They lived 
there the remainder of their lives, the death of Mr. Sharpe occurring in 1853, and that 
of Mrs. Sharpe in 1876. The former was a merchant, contractor, and builder, and sjient 
many successful years in his business in the State of his adoption. There were hve 
children born to them, all of whom are now living — B. R. Sharpe resides near Memphis, 
Tenn.; Mrs. Sarah E., wife of J. W. Herring, of Morgan County; Mrs. Arabella V., 
wife of J. W. Lipscomb, of Cullman; Mrs. Eliza J., wife of William D. Orr, of New- 
nan, Ga.; H. A. Sharpe, Birmingham, Ala. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Morgan County, Alabama, in 1848. His 
early educational advantages were such as the common schools of his county afforded. 
After availing himself of these to the fullest extent, he attended the law department 
of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., where he graduated in 1870, and at once 
began the practice in his native county, where he continued until 1881. While living 
in the county he was elected to and served in the lower branch of the legislature of 
1878-79. 

In 1881 he removed to Birmingham, and resumed the practice of his profession, 
and in February formed a copartnership with James M. Weatherly, now the assistant 
general counsel for the Georgia Pacific Railway. 

This association proved mutually beneficial, and the firm had large and important 
interests intrusted to their management, which proved that their clients were not 
unwise. The dissolution of this copartnership was brought about by the appointment 
of Mr. Sharpe to be judge of the city court, by Governor O'Neal, in December, 1884. 
The appointment was universally approved by the bar, and the creation of the new 
court was admitted by all to be a pressing necessity. Business had accumulated to 
such an extent in the other courts that this court became absolutely essential to relieve 
the pressure upon them. 

Judge Sharpe's administration of his office gave great satisfaction, and at the gen- 
eral State election in August, 1886, he was elected to fill the office forsix years. If men 
are judged for capacity and fitness for any given position by the indorsement they 
receive at the hands of the peopla. then surely may the subject before us be adjudged 
an exceedingly suitable person for the oflice. 

The city court is one of general common law and chancery jurisdiction for Jeffer- 
son County, so constituted as not to conflict or clash with the circuit and chancery 
courts. 

Judge Sharpe belongs to the Knights of Honor and the Legion of Honor. 

He was married in 1875 to Miss Mae Hansell, of Decatur, Alabama. He is the 
father of four children, who are living — Augusta, Lucy, Ethel, and Carrie. 

Judge Sharpe is still a young man, and if one were allowed to predict from the 
present standpoint, it is safe to claim for him higher honor and greater success for his 
future career. 



32 2 Jefferson Coiaiiy. 



Samuel ^arl(? (Jreene :« -"-^^ve of Jefferson county where he was born 
^ N \N^^/\ in 1853. He is a descendant of some of the oldest 

and most prominent families of this section, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in 
this volume. He is the eldest of six children, now living, of Robert N. and Sarah E. 
Greene. His father is a son of George L. and Jane Y. Greene, who were among the 
early settlers of Jefferson County from South Carolina. His mother is a daughter of 
Dr. Samuel S. Earle and Harriet H. Earle, who also removed here, in the early history 
■ of the county, from South Carolina. 

He received a collegiate education at the Washington and Lee University, Lexing- 
ton, Va., and afterward became a teacher for four years in the Elyton and Birming- 
ham schools. During this period he was also a law student in the ofhce of Porter & 
Martin, and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He commenced the practice of his pro- 
fession in November, 1881, at Jasper, Walker County, Ala., where he continued for 
two years. In January, 1883, he returned to Birmingham, where he has since been 
engaged in active and successful practice. In June, 1884, he was nominated by the 
Democratic Convention, on the first ballot, to represent Jefferson County in the State 
legislature, and at the general election, in August following, was elected by a large 
majority. He served one term very acceptably to his constituents and with much 
credit to himself ; and, although strongly solicited by his many friends to again become 
a candidate, he declined to do so, preferring to devote his time exclusively to the prac- 
tice of law. In October, 1885, he formed a law partnership with James E. Hawkins, 
under the firm name of Hawkins & Greene. ' 

In 1887 Mr. Greene was appointed judge of the Criminal Courtof Jefferson County, 
a high honor for so young an attorney. 

He is a member of the Episcopal Church. 



THE BAR. 

Q I K J I r hr> /T\3 rhi n Jefferson County is the mother of no nobler son and wears on 
" / I /• her escutcheon no fairer name than that of Alburto Martin. 

Into her mountain fastnesses, when the tide of civilization had just begun to flow 
through her beautiful valleys, came his father, a man of distinguished French extrac- 
tion, and here, in 1830, his son " Burt " was born, and here grew to manhood. Educa- 
ted in the best schools of that day, and graduated at the State University while yet in 
his teens, he came home, as fine a specimen of haughty, graceful, dashing, young man- 
hood as ever trod royal halls or bent the knee to fair woman's shrine. Indeed, he was 
a fiery embodiment of chivalry. To be a " gentleman," in strict accordance with the 
idea of the true knight, was inborn, and not cultivated ; it was a first, not a second 
nature, in this gallant youth of the mountains. 

Those who are familiar with the history of our wealthy and talented young men of 
the " forties and fifties," whose fathers were masters of broad domains and many slaves I 
whose methods, though lavish and careless, were yet lordly ; who regarded " mean- 
ness " as the greatest stigma, and the fame of hospitality as a laurel crown — those 
who know the history of those Flush Times of Alabama can but drop a tear of forgive- 
ness over the record of follies and " wild oats " sowing, in which our bravest, purest, 
and noblest may have indulged, without malice. For a few years young Martin drank 
every cup of joy which the goddess held up to his lips. But at the age of twenty-six 
he had buckled down to Blackstone, Coke, and Chitty, and proclaimed to the world, 



Biographical. 323. 



like " Prince Hal," to whom he bore reBCDiblance in more respects than in wiM esca- 
pades, to use his quotation : 

" I will live 
To mock the expectations of the world, 
To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out 
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down 
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me 
Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now. 
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea, 
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods. 
And flow henceforth in formal majesty." 

After three years of practice in his chosen profession he was sent to the legislature 
in 1859, and again in 1861, as a reward for political services worthy of the citizen. 
Politics had a strong charm for him, and he was rapidly developing into statesmanlike 
methods when that higher and nobler passion of patriotism overcame all other senti- 
ments in him and swept him, not unwillingly, for he was a soldier by temperament,, 
into the tide of war. 

He was among the first to pledge his convictions on the tented field. Forming a 
company, he was chosen captain of it early in 1861. Mustered at Montgomery this 
company became a part of the celebrated Tenth Alabama Infantrj-. The names of the 
captains in this regiment are familiar to every well-informed Alabamian : John H. For- 
ney, John H. t!aldwell, L. F. Box, Alburto Martin, Rufus W. Cobb, William H. For- 
ney, J. M. Renfro, and J. J. Woodward. A more splendid galaxy of gallant young 
men never gathered iirnuiid a camp fire or led a charge. 

At Drainsville, at Yorktown, at Williamsburg, at Seven Pines, at Gaines' Mills, at 
Frazier's Farm, and at the Second Manassas, Captain Martin led his gallant company,. 
and at the last-named terrible conflict received a wound which terminated his military 
career and came near co.sting him his life. Doubtless from the effects of this wound 
his days were shortened. 

Captain Martin, though hanging up his good sword, never so far forgot his convic- 
tions as to be silent in retirement. He did yeoman's service in the rear. He stilL 
waved the banner of his Southland over the heads of ihe shirking or disaffected. He 
proclaimed the justice of the cause from the housetops of his mountain country, and 
it required at one time no less daring to do this than it did to lead the charge in which 
he was so desperately wounded. 

In 1863 he was elected solicitor of his judicial circuit and ably filled this ofiice till 
displaced by political policy. He was afterward replaced by the legislature and was 
elected for a term of tliree years, at the expiration of which term his official career 
ended in 1868. 

These were the dark days of reconstruction. All the calamities which the con- 
quered know seemed to sweep over us then. Public and private distrust ; households 
divided against each other for conscience sake ; bitter animosities, social and public 
ostracism, social and public persecution reigned defiantly. Added to these evils came 
sickness, and financial ruin throughout the whole country. We may inadequately 
comprehend the anguish which such a haughty and lofty spirit as Martin's had to 
endure in this crisis. In the midst of his political activity his law practice became 
extensive and lucrative, and the shrewd elements in his character developed to meet 
the pressure and emergency of the times. 



324 Jefferson County. 



No man had a stronger and more active faith in his native land than Captain Mar- 
tin. The Iron Mountain, whicli loomed up in front of his cottage door, seemed to bear 
on its brow the name and legend of his native State — " Alabama, here we rest," — and 
to say to the conquering invader, with his attendant evils, " Thus far shalt thou go and 
no further." In the iron-ribbed fastnesses of Red Mountain prosperity shall found a 
refuge and progress shall start here a new era of civilization. The words " New South " 
and " material development" have become threadbare phrases now. They werealmost 
offensive terms in 1868, when Captain Martin resolved to throw all the energy of his 
nature and conviction into the utterance of them and into the promulgation of the great 
ideas which they then but feebly expressed. Indeed, he believed in the Old South, 
and died in that faith. In her bosom lay all the elements of greatness and progress 
which was claimed for the New South. In the daj's past she had simply been nursing 
in silence her real forces, preparing for " commencement day," .so to speak. The New 
South was but the Old South divested of its burdens, but not of its vitality. It was 
Martin's faith in the South's vitality that made him wise in his labors toward her 
development and almost prophetic in providing for his own material prosperity. None 
read the glorious possibilities of Jefferson and the surrounding counties with a shrewder 
ken than he. His action and faith went hand in hand. His familiar maxim was to 
" hedge " and take the chances on all sides. The wisdom of his " hedging " can now 
be seen in and around Birmingham, where, dying, he has left an estate of great value. 

It will be impossible for the future historian of Alabama to write of her greatness 
without writing a true history of Birmingham, and it will be impossible to write a true 
history of Birmingham without writing a true history of Alburto Martin. There is no 
gainsaying the fact that Peters and Powell, Mudd and Morris, all men of great force 
of character and wonderful energies ; that a thousand other natural and artificial forces 
aided and assured the accomplishment before the world. Dr. Caldwell and his lieuten- 
ant, W. J. Milner, have, we own, proven themselves very trusty and trustworthy offi- 
cers. Linn, Sloss, and DeBardeleben each has held up " his end of the log," to use a 
slang, but pertinent phrase, but none of them took hold with more vigor than Alburto 
Martin, or threw themselves and their fortunes into the venture with more oneness 
of purpose than he. 

He scarcely lived, however, to see the fruition of his hopes and labor. He died in 
Birmingham, in 1879. 

Crvl/lcmlhh \\( H^\l/ihh ^'^'' Hewitt is a resident of Birmingham, in the 
Oiab/lllli; VU. jlKVUKI.. pj.;,j^g gj jjfg^ _^,jj ^^ ^l^g ^pjjj ^f ^,jg principal law 

firm of the county, Hewitt, Walker ct Porter. He was born in Jefferson t'ounty Feb- 
ruary 14, 1834, and is the son of James H. and Eleanor Hewitt, nee Tarrant, early set- 
tlers. The paternal grandfather was of Irish blood, a native of North (Carolina, and 
James H. Hewitt, the father, was a Tennesseean by birth. He was a man of industry 
■ and high moral character. He came to Jefferson County while it was a part of Blount, 
and before the admission of the State into the Union. The Tarrants were of Scotch 
origin. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Hewitt was one of the earliest preachers of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who ministered in the county. 

James H. Hewitt and his wife Eleanor reared a family in Jelferson of seven chil- 
dren, four sons and three daughters. The mother died at home in 1853, and the father 
five years later. The family were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Goldsmith \V. Hewitt received an academic education in Jefferson County, and 
began to study law in the office of Judge W. S. Mudd at Elyton. Subsequently he 
entered the Lebanon Law School of Tennessee. In 1856 he was licensed to practice 




^^^vi^^J^. 



Biographical. 327 



and became a member of the firm of Ernest & Earle. Later he formed a co-partner- 
ship with John C. Morrow. 

At the outbreak of the war between the States, in 1861, Mr. Hewitt promptly laid 
aside his professional work to enter the Confederate army as a private in Company B, 
Tenth Alabama Infantry. He served in this capacity until August, 1862, when he was 
promoted to the captaincy of Company G, Twenty-eighth Alabama Infantry. 

As a private soldier Mr. Hewitt participated in the battle of Seven Pines and the 
Seven Days' battles around Richmond. As captain in the Twenty-eighth Regiment he 
fought in the battle of Murfreesboro, and on September 20th was disabled by a wound 
on the field of Chickamauga. 

After the war Mr. Hewitt resumed the practice of law. In 1870, in a period of 
great political excitement, he was elected to the lower house of the Alabama Legisla- 
ture. At the next regular election he was sent to the State Senate. While holding 
this office he was elected to the Federal House of Representatives. 

Mr. Hewitt took his seat on the organization of the Forty-fourth Congress, and was 
returned for four successive congresses, practically without opposition. He became 
at once a working member. Not a brilliant orator, he proved to be a ready debater, 
well informed, courageous, and incorruptible. He was active during his whole service 
of eight years as a reformer, and, in ceaseless pursuit of an unostentatious line of con- 
duct, accomplished much toward reconciling the prejudices against his State and sec- 
tion then dominant in Congress. 

The first act of Congressman Hewitt was to introduce " a bill to secure an impar- 
tial administration of justice in the State of Alabama." The theory of the reform 
consisted in the removal of political machinery from influence in the courts. 

His second important bill was to put a stop to the partisan as.sessments of officials, 
clerks, and others employed in the departments of the Federal civil service. 

Among other leading measures introduced by him was a law to pension survivors 
of the Indian and Mexican wars, and to repeal the act forbidding pensions to all save 
those who had taken the Union side in the war of 1861-65 ; to remonetize silver ; to 
prohibit the retirement of greenbacks and to prohibit banks of issue ; to suppress 
polygamy in Utah ; to improve, by Federal aid, the rivers and harbors of Alabama ; 
to secure for bona fide settlers the public domain of the Government. In the last days 
of his congressional service he resisted, in the lower house, the senate amendments to 
the Mexican contingent fund. For eighty or ninety consecutive hours, day and night, 
Mr. Hewitt fought these amendments, and he believes that his resistance saved a bil- 
lion of dollars to the Government. 

Mr. Hewitt opposed the Reagan Interstate Commerce bill in all stages of its 
progress. He al.so opposed the policy of the Government in selling the Alabama min- 
eral lands to the highest bidder. 

Mr. Hewitt is a revenue reformer, from the standpoint of the Chicago Democratic 
platform of 1884. He favors the continuation of the custom-house system of taxa- 
tion, with protection to American labor and capital as an " intentional incident." He 
favors the abolition of all other modes of Federal taxation. 

In 188.5, with the adjournment of the Forty-seventh Congress, Mr. Hewitt volun- 
tarily retired to the life of a private citizen. Resuming his lucrative practice of the 
law in Birmingham, he reluctantly consented to be elected to the lower house of the 
Alabama Legislature in 1886. His services in that body have been very active and 
influential. 

In December, 1858, Mr. Hewitt was married to Miss Sarah J. Morrow, a daughter 
of one of the pioneer settlers of JefTerson, Hugh Morrow. Hugh Morrow was clerk of 



/ 



328 Jefferson Counly. 



the Circuit Court of Jefferson for thirty years, and reared a large family of useful and 
influential citizens. This wife died in 1S63, and one child was the only oflspring of the 
marriage. In 1868 Mr. Hewitt married Mrs. H. E. Perkins, the daughter of Dr. Sam- 
uel Earle, also one of the early settlers of Jefferson. With his wife and their two chil- 
dren he now lives in comfortable circumstances in Birminghiim. No man of the 
county commands a larger personal following than Goldsmith W. Hewitt. He is a 
communicant in the Episcopal Church. 

\li!ll!::im Q Wf^W/COr Ir it is a grateful duty to the biographer of individ- 
U/lllld/l\ p. Uydll\(|^[ , J\ . jj^jg^ ^,^^ ^^^,g g^gj g^^.j^j influences for them- 

selves in the vigorous life of Jeflferson County, to assign to its proper place one so 
admirably well rounded as that of Mr. Walker. He possesses the equipoise of intellec- 
tual faculties of a high grade, the grace of well-bred manner, and a handsome person 
to define the tout ensemble of an individuality which must be confessed to be superior 
to the general standard of manhood, even so respectable as that native to the region of 
his origin. 

William A. Walker, the father, as we have seen, was one of the earlier settlers of 
Jones Valley. On his estate, in the vicinage of Elyton, his only son, William A. 
Walker, Jr., was born in 1846. There were six children to make happy a well-ordered 
home, maintained by prudence, wisdom, and prosperity. It was a home typical of the 
virtues, enjoyments, and aspirations of Southern society, under Southern institutions, 
of the period of its happy existence. The head, the father, was industrious, circum- 
spect, and hospitable. The domestic regime moved under the auspices of frugal yet 
abundant measures, after their kind, presided over by his helpmeet. The children 
were taught in letters as the country permitted, and in manners and morals by the 
daily lives of those who had given them life. 

William A. Walker, Jr., was sent to the neighborhood schools, the best nurseries 
of human nature, in the season of boyhood, which our educational methods have thus 
far devised. He slept under his father's roof, and spent his hours awake in continual 
contact with the tempers, intellects, courage, and idiosyncracies directed by the motives 
of boyhood. Directed by the motives of manhood, he now daily encounters the same 
human nature, and, thus early made familiar with its scope and meaning, has been 
able to take, in its aSiiirs, a commanding position, commensurate with his natural 
instincts and high capacity. 

William A. Walker, Jr., entered the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in his 
sixteenth year. He was a student (or cadet, the institution being under military 
administration) and in the senior class, when, in September, 1863, he enlisted in a 
company formed from the University corps, and commanded by Captain C. P. Storrs, 
a fellow cadet, to join the Seventh Alabama Cavalry, Confederate States Army. He 
continued in the service until the final surrender and disbaudment of the military 
forces of the Confederacy. He had been promoted sergeant, and had some unpleasant 
experiences as a prisoner of war in the period of active hostilities. 

Returning to Elyton, young Walker entered at once upon work as a school teacher 
in the community of his friends and neighbors. After, perhaps, eight months service 
in this field, he entered upon the study of the law. In 1867 he was admitted to the 
bar. Entering at once upon the practice of his profession, he was so fortunate, as an 
example of the usual good fortune of his life, to be taken into co-partnership with 
Burwell Boykin Lewis, a gentleman of scholarly attainments, great energy, and of the 
highest moral character. Mr. Lewis became a leader of the new era. He was elected 




(^/A^^ 



Biogi-aphical. ■},}, i 



to Congress, and resigned to take the presidency of tlie State University, where he died 
in the prime of a highly useful and honorable career, regretted by the whole State. 

Mr. Walker became the junior member of the law firm, Cobb, Lewis & Walker. 
The senior afterward served two terms as Governor of Alabama. 

In 1870 he formed a copartnership with Hon. (j. W. Hewitt, for eight years a 
member of Congress. 

August 23, 1870, in his twenty-fourth year, Mr. Walker was happily married to 
Miss Virginia T., daughter of the late eminent jurist, W. S. Mudd, a near neighbor. 
They have six children, two daughters and four sons. 

Mr, Walker held the responsible and laborious office of County Solicitor from 1868 
to 1876, and distinguished himself as an honorable and .successful prosecutor. 

He is a large stockholder and a director of the First National Bank of Birming- 
ham. He was elected, in 1885, president of that prosperous institution, but after ten 
months service he discovered tlie irreconcilable nature of the office with his practice 
before the courts, and voluntarily resigned it. 

The lirm, Hewitt, Walker & Porter, commands a very large and profitable clientele. 
Corporation practice engages its labors largely. As a lawyer Mr. Walker is esteemed 
for the accuracy of liis opinions and the absolute devotion lie brings to his cause. His 
investigations of autliorities and his energj- in pursuit of e\-idence to sustain bis case 
are so marked by intelligence and natural aptitude to assimilate that which is of value 
to him that he seldom loses a client capable of appreciating these elements in a law- 
yer's mind. The oratory by which the law and evidence must be argued and explained 
to court and jury is earnest in manner and fluent in diction, dignified, as the speaker 
always is, and effective to sustain the reputation of a successful pleader and advocate. 

In 1878 he was elected to the legislature, but has not sought political preferment. 

His perfect health, elastic constitution, sound judgment, and great industrj' bid 
fair to preserve him as a rising influence in, tliis, thepivotal factor of Alabama's revived 
civilization. He is already a rich man. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. 

DnK^rh U DoarROn ^'^'^ born in Barbour County, Alabama, in 1848. Hie 
V /'In ' parents, Benjamin F. and Harriet M. Pearson, were 

both natives of North Carolina, where they were married. They came to Alabama and 
settled in Barbour County in 1840. There were six children born to them, and of their 
three sons Robert H. was the youngest. Two of his sisters and one brother, Herbert, 
are living in Texas; the others are dead. 

The early years of the subject of this sketch were passed on the farm, where he 
assisted his fatlier in agriculture. The rudiments of his education were obtained at 
home, and under the instruction of his competent parents. In this happy environ- 
ment was laid the elements of his strong character and fine sense. Influences here 
imbibed have, no doubt, been the basis of his phenomenal success in life. 

He taught school for some time prior to his attendance at the University of Ten- 
nessee. He thereafter went to Lebanon, Tenn., and pursued a course in the law 
department there. Upon the completion of his course tliere lie came to Birmingham, 
early in 1872. He is the only lawyer remaining of those who were here when he came. 
Beginning the practice of law upon arrival, in Birmingham's roughest age, there was 
full scope for the exercise of his positive character ; and the inhabitants of that time 
remaining bear glad testimony of his strong influence upon the character of the city in 
those early days. Nor has this influence ceased. Growing up with the growth of the 
place his professional work increased with it, and his influence lias always been felt for 

19 



332 Jefferson County. 



good. He has amassed a considerable amount of property, and is now enjoying great 
prosperity, to which his pluck and energy have entitled him. He is the legal represen- 
tative of many of the strongest corporations in Birmingham, and director in many others. 

Mr. Pearson has never sought political preferment, and has seldom accepted it, 
although he has often been solicited to do so. The nearest approach to this that he 
has permitted himself to accept has been the position of Chairman of the Democratic 
Executive Committee of the county, which he held for two terms; and he was for four 
years Assistant Solicitor of the Circuit for JefTerson County. He has always been one 
of the leaders in the Democratic councils .since his residence here, and has presided 
over some of the most important conventions ever held in thecount)-. He has labored 
for the interests of his partj', and has been and is ever ready to forward them. He is 
devoted to his profession, and. his practice is large and lucrative; and although he does 
not now need it as a support,' he is determined to pass his life in the practice of law. 
He has a very large circle of >strong friends ; and although a positive man, he has but 
few, if any, enemies. His friends rejoice with him in his success in life. 

Mr. Pearson was married, in the latter part of 1875, to Miss Sallie, daughter of 
L. C. Harrison, of Dallas County, Alabama. They have one child, a daughter, Mamie, 
and they reside in a beautiful home in the northern portion of the city. They are 
members of the Episcopal Church, and among its most earnest supporters. 

He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. 



Jot^i) 5alia|^(^rro S^rry 



is a native of the Chester District, South Caro- 
lina, where he was born August 31, 1831. His 
parents, John W. and Emily (Taliaferro) Terry, were of English and Norman extrac- 
tion, and their ancestors settled in America early in the sixteenth century. His father 
was a farmer, and in-lS.35 became a resident of Alabama, locating upon a farm in the 
vicinity of Pickensville. Ujion the death of his father, in 1841, the subject of this 
sketch, was placed under, the guardianship of Colonel Robert T. Johnston, a most 
worthy gentleman and accomplished scholar, and by him he was placed in the Univer- 
sity of Alabama. The health of Mr. Terry, which had never been robust, so far failed 
in 1848 as to make it necessary for him to quit the University and lead a more active 
life. In 1850 he entered the law class in the University at Louisville, Ivy., and applied 
himself to the study of law with great zeal, but again his progress was checked by ill 
health, and he was forced to return home. 

He was fortunate, however, in having an accomplished scholar for his guardian, 
and under him he pursued his studies as assiduously as ill health would permit him to 
do. Mr. Terry taught school during 1852, yet he continued to devote every leisure 
moment to study. It is a pleasing sight to see a youth, in ill health and poverty, thus 
eager to acquire knowledge. 

In 1852 Mr. Terry was licensed to practice law, but, under the advice of friends, he 
prosecuted his legal studies for another year before opening an office. 

He formed a partnership with R, T. Johnston, Esq., and opened an office in Car- 
rollton in 1S53. In 1854 Chancellor Clark appointed Mr. Terry Register in Chancery 
for Pickens, but he resigned this office during the following year, in order to devote 
himself more entirely to his professional engagements. 

In 1856 Mr. Terry was the whig candidate for the legislature in Pickens, but was 
•defeated, mainly on account of the local issues introduced into the canvass. 

In 1857 Mr. Terry formed a partnership with the Hon. Turner Reavis for Pickens 
County, and applied himself with assiduity to his profession. 

In 18U2 he entered the Confederate Army, as first lieutenant of an infantry com- 





^€^^^->' 



Biographical. 335 



pany, and served in the field until 1S63, when he was honorably discharged on account 
of ill health. 

The termination of the war, in 1S65, found the South bankrupt and prostrate, and 
many men were filled with utter despair. Mr. Terry was not of this number. He 
went to work with industry and energy, at any business that promised to be remuner- 
ative, and, in the fall of 1865, he resumed the practice of his profession in Carrollton. 
Since that time he has enjoyed a lucrative and constantly-increasing practice, and ia 
now blessed with a competent fortune and freedom from debt. 

Mr. Terry's judgment is sound and discriminating ; his industry is considerable; 
his power of attention is great ; his habits are moral ; his temper cheerful and equa- 
ble, and his manners courteous and easy. Mr. Terry is a ready and elTective speaker, 
courteous to the bench and bar, and free from the vicious habit of wantonly assailing 
the character of adverse witnesses. 

The benevolence of his nature, and the kindliness of his disposition, are traits for 
■which he is honorably distinguished. But he is benevolent and kind from principle 
and a sense of duty, rather than from love of notoriety or mere personal attachment; 
he feels that it is his duty as a Christian to do all the good that lies in his power, and 
his kindness is as a steady running stream. There can be uo impropriety in mentioning 
a remark which he made last summer, while traveling with a friend to Fayette Court- 
house : " When I come to die, I wish people to say, ' a good man has been snatched from 
among us ' ; I had rather be a good than a great man. I often examine myself to see if 
I have not failed, in some respect, to do all the good in my power to my fellow men." 
The man who is habitually guided by such feelings is not apt to miss the benedictions 
of his fellow men. 

Colonel Terry was always regarded by his brother lawyers as possessed of a strong, 
vigorous, and discriminating legal mind, ranking among the best lawyers of the State 
of Alabama. His form of speech was unusually clear and forcible, and in every law 
suit in which he took part, or consultation in which he was engaged, he carried with 
Mm the kindly feelings of his adversaries, and the warm approbation of his associates 
and clients. 

His life has been one of great success, as the result of honorable methods and hard 
work, and his retirement from his profession, while yet a vigorous man, is well becom- 
ing a career so laudable. Beloved by his brethren in the profession, honored and 
respected by all citizens among whom he ever lived, and surrounded by a happy fam- 
ily and prosperous children, his wealth enables him to live in ease, and at the same 
time extend a generous and charitable hand to objects he thinks deserving. There are 
iew men in Alabama who are more interesting in conversation then Colonel Terry. 
His memory of past events is accurate and grasping, and with his conversation he has 
the happy faculty of entering into each detail with a zest and dignity, withal, scarcely 
possessed by even the most brilliant conversationalists. Had Colonel Terry sought the 
field of politics, he would have reached any goal his ambition might have named. 

Colonel Terry became a resident of Birmingham in January, 1873, and engaged in 
the practice of his profession, which he earnestly and vigorously prosecuted until his 
retirement in 1885. Soon after coming to this city he was appointed city attorney, 
serving one year, during which term of service he originated the plan now known as 
the Powell School System, and raised a subscription of two thousand dollars for its 
inauguration, being himself the first and largest individual subscriber. He was also 
Superintendent of Education. 

To Colonel Terry, for two years, more than any other one citizen, the people are 
indebted for the building and establishment of the first public school. 



336 Jefferson County. 



He was united in marriage in March, 1858, with Miss Elizabeth Kerr, daughter of 
William Kerr, of Sumter County, Alabama. 

During the cholera epidemic, in 1873, Colonel Terry stood bravely at his post, was 
prostrated by that dread scourge, and lost his faithful and devoted wife, who died 
July 14, 1873, leaving six children. 

Mr. Terry was united to his second wife in June, 1874. Her maiden name was 
Mary E. Taylor. 

Mr. Terry is a member of the M. E. Church, South, and was for many years superin- 
tendent of a Sunday school of that church. 

(Wr^v-^TsAnv Oeo-ar I-ar\<r> was born in Macon County, Alabama, October 

|iiexa9a(^r usear i^ape 09, ^^^^_ ^^ ^^^^5^,^^ ^ j^j^^^^i academic and 

collegiate education, and immediately upon completion of his course of study, 
in 1868, he was called into service as principal of a high school for boys, at 
Clayton, Alabama. In the meantime, Mr. Lane studied law under Hon. John A. 
Foster, now Chancellor of the Southern Division of Alabama. He was admitted to 
the bar in November, 1809, and was highly complimented by Chancellor McCraw, be- 
fore whom the examination was conducted, and in whose court he was admitted. The 
young lawyer " hung his shingle " at Ozark, Ala., and began in earnest the labors of 
his profession. Just after his dehut as a dLsciple of Blackstone occurred the birth of 
Birmingham, and with characteristic wisdom and foresight the young lawyer at Ozark 
saw the grand possibilities of this coming city, and determined to cast his lot with her. 
In the Spring of 1873 he open a law otlice in Birmingham. In 1874 he became the law 
partner of Col. John T. Terry, who was not slow to find that there was "something in 
the vigorous young man." The firm of Teriy & Lane did a lucrative practice till 1885, 
when Col. Terry retired, and Mr. Lane formed a partnership with Col. E. T. Taliaferro, 
under the firm name of Lane & Taliaferro. This firm enjoyed a large and growing 
practice, and in March, 1886, received B. H. Tabor, Esq., into the firm. Lane, Talia- 
ferro & Tabor continued together until January, 1887, when, by mutual agreement, the 
copartnership was dissolved. 

In 1880 Mr. Lane became editor of the Iron Age, and led a most vigorous campaign 
in behalf of Democracy. His editorials, being noted for their boldness and .strength, 
won for him a State reputation during his brief journalistic career. While he had 
always been an ardent Democrat, he never had asked office, preferring to work with 
the rank and file. 

In 1882 Mr. Lane was urged to run for mayor of Birmingham. He became a can- 
didate, and in a heated contest won the fight, lacking only sixteen votes of a majority 
over all three of his competitors. He entered upon the duties of the office in Decem- 
ber, 1882. The new executive at once saw that he had work before him. The city 
was growing rapidly, and its municipal government was of \ast importance. He was 
not slow to find that changes were needed, and he at once formulated apian, or platform, 
Sind put it in execution, and the result was a new era in Birmingham's life. So satis- 
factory was his first two years' administration, that in 1884, when his name was placed 
for re-election, he achieved the victory over a popular opponent by an overwhelming 
majority, many of his bitterest opponents in the former campaign being his most 
ardent supporters in the latter contest. In 1886 he was petitioned by a large number 
of voters and taxpayers, white and colored, to allow the use of his name for a third 
term, and, in a contest with a popular gentleman, won by a majority greater than his 
opponent's entire vote. Mayor Lane's whole administration has been marked by the 
spirit of progress. His course has been wise, just, and entirely successful. His most 



Biographical. 337 



excellent executive ability, his nipid manner of dispatching business, his dignified 
bearing and fluency as a speaker, and his impartiality as a judge, combined with his 
good business sense, mark him as a leader, and his services will be sought for as long 
as he has strength of body to respond. 

In 188+, to his surprise, Mr. Lane was elected president of the Sixth District Con- 
gressional Convention, and made a happy extempore, speech, that won the admiration of 
his audience. In 1885 he was made temporary president of the Kiver and Harbor 
Convention at Tuscaloosa, and his address on that occasion met with an ovation, 
and received the most flattering comments of the press. 

Besides the labors of the mayor's office, and the extensive law practice of his firm, 
Mr. Lane is president of the Smithfleld Land Company, a director of the Alabama 
State Bank, also of the Iron and Oak Insurance Company. By his vigorous activity 
and splendid financial ability, Mr. Lane has accumulated a competency, and enjoys the 
luxury of a beautiful home, surrounded by all the comforts of life, and a wife and 
children to whom he is fondly attached. 

Mr. Lane's administration of the city's affairs has been free from jobbery. While 
he enjoys the warm friendship of a great number of men high in position, no man can 
claim to possess the power of persuading him against a strict line of duty to his 
people, as he understands that duty. He is a friend to his friends, and uncompromis- 
ing toward his enemies ; firm, but generous ; dignified, but not arrogant. If he is at 
all a politician, his policy is that of a strict constructionist of the law of right ; and on 
this line he will win. He is a good judge of men, and can not be easil}' deceived. Be- 
fore his power sits the poor with equal safety as the rich, for he knows no difTerence 
of men in his judgments. In point of charity and benevolence, he is ever ready to 
respond, and in him the poor have found a friend indeed. 

If there is one trait of Mr. Lane's character more prominent than any other, it is 
decision — that quality of the mind which, under given circumstances, acts with a math- 
ematical precision. With him to act is instantaneous with resolve. He precedes the 
march of events, and seems to foresee results in the chrysalis of their causes, and to 
seize that moment for exertion which others use in deliberation. Yet his actions are 
based on a well-ascertained and generous condition — the concomitants of which are a 
well-disciplined intellect, strong character, persuasiveness, tranquility, and cheerfulness. 

There is no greater genius than the genius of energy and industry, and the sub- 
ject of this sketch possesses this quality in an eminent degree. The men who have 
most powerfully influenced the world are men of this class — those of strong convic- 
tions and enduring capacity for work, impelled by irresistible energy and invincible 
determination. " Energy of will, self-originating force," says a writer, "is the soul of 
every great character. Where it is, there is life ; where it is not, there is fainting, 
helplessness, and despondency." And another — "The intellect is but the half of a 
man; the will is the driving wheel, the spring of motive power." 

Mr. Lane's dignity ie not a spirit of cold hauteur and pride, but an outward walk 
and conversation which become one who has a just appreciation of life and its possi- 
bilities—a dignity which exists independent of " studied gestures or well-practiced 
smiles." 

Young, active, full of health, vigor, and worthy ambition, the future is full of 
promise to him, and by whichever path duty may call him. A, O. Lane is a man of 
destiny. By F. V. Evans. 



338 Jefferson County. 

P T T-jIi-i-frtf-rn Prominent among the noted lawyers of this State etanda 
1*1 J N ■ the subject of this sketch, who is a descendant of some of 

the oldest families of Virginia. His ancestors are traced in the history of that colony 
as fai- back as 1774. They were patriots, and participated in the struggle for independ- 
ence, and subsequently some of them were engaged in the war of 1812. 

His parents, Dr. Edwin T., born in King William County, Virginia, and Jane B. 
(Pope) Taliaferro, born in Henry County, Tennessee, resided at the time of his birth 
at Paris, Tennessee, where, for over twenty-five years, his father practiced his profes- 
sion. In 1866 he removed with his family to Madison County, Alabama, where he 
continued his profession. He is an esteemed physician and citizen, and represented that 
county in the State legislature during the session of 1884-85. The mother of our sub- 
ject died in 1873. She was the mother of five children, three of whom are now living, 
and all residents of Alabama. 

Colonel Taliaferro was born in Paris, Henry County, Tennessee, in 1849, and 
received a common school education, supplemented by a course of study for two years 
at Manchester College, Tennessee. He began the study of law in 1868 in the office of 
John C. Brown, of Pulaski, Tennessee, who was twice Governor of the State, remain- 
ing under his tutelage for two years, teaching school in the meantime, which occupa- 
tion he followed for over one year after leaving the office of his preceptor. He was 
admitted to the bar at Pulaski in January, 1871, and immediately began practice there, 
continuing until January, 1883, during which period he was associated with Major B. F. 
Matthews, and again with John T. Allen, both natives of Tennessee. 

Colonel Taliaferro rose rapidly in his profession, and was a prominent factor in the 
political affairs of the State. He was elected to the State legislature in 1876 by the 
largest Democratic majority ever cast in his county, and was elected speaker of the 
house, being one of the youngest members of that body. He made great character as 
a presiding officer, as will be readily attested by all Tennesseans. During his term of 
oflBce there was a regular and three extra sessions of the legislature, and excitement 
ran high on the question of the State's indebtedness ; and, although he was with the 
minority in the house, yet, in all four of the sessions, never for a single time were his 
rulings overruled, and seldom appealed from, by the house. 

In 1878 he was elected permanent president of the judicial convention called to 
nominate five supreme court judges. General William A. Quarles, of Clarksville, being 
temporary chairman. This was the largest and perhaps the ablest convention ever 
assembled in that State, being composed almost entirely of attorneys. During his term 
in the legislature the State debt of Tennessee was first agitated. Colonel Taliaferro 
took strong grounds for State credit, which he warmly maintained, with the approval 
of his constituents. 

In 1880 he was an elector on the Hancock and English Presidential ticket, and, at 
the close of that campaign, abandoned political life, to devote his entire attention to 
his profession. In 1881 he was employed, as one of twelve of the leading lawyers from 
different sections of the State, to file a bill in the chancery court of Nashville to have 
declared unconstitutional a bill passed by the legislature to settle the debt of the State 
with 3 per cent, bonds, the debt amounting to .l!27, 500,000 at that time. Upon appeal 
to the supreme court Colonel Taliaferro was chosen as one of the counsel to argue the 
case, orally and by printed brief, and they carried the appeal to victory. 

In January, 1S83, he sought a larger field for the practice of law, and removed to 
Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he was in practice two years, all of that period in con- 
nection with B. H. Tabor. In Arkansas, as well as elsewhere, he took foremost rank 





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Biographical. 34 1 



among lawyers, and was engaged in nearly every important case at Fort Smith, while 
living there. 

In 1884 Birmingham commenced to attract and command the attention of the entire 
United States as a mining, manufacturing, railroad, and corporate center. Colonel 
Taliaferro foresaw the great future of the city, and the advantages it offered in the 
practice of law. Having a strong desire to practice more specially that branch of his 
profession relating to corporations, he came to Birmingham in September, 1883, pros- 
pecting, and at once saw the immense resources of Birmingham and vicinity, and its 
extraordinary inducements in his profession, and determined at once to make it hia 
home. 

Colonel Taliaferro became a citizen of Birmingham in January, 1885, and has from 
that date been a power in what is now termed the most able and brilliant bar in Ala- 
bama. In December, 1885, he was employed to return to his old home in Tennessee 
as leading counsel in one of the most important and exciting cases ever tried in that 
section, the celebrated "Jones case." Of his efforts in that case we copy a single 
extract from the Pulaski Citizen, of date December 3, 1885: 

" Hon. E. T. Taliaferro's speech yesterday in the Jones case was a great and bril- 
liant eft'ort of an able man. The court room was crowded to suffocation. The interest 
with which it was awaited and listened to, and the high opinions expressed of it since 
its delivery, must be peculiarly gratifying to him. His first appearance for several 
years before his old clients, constituents, and friends, was an ovation, and an expres- 
sion of regard and trust that should urge him to even nobler efforts and purposes in 
his profession." 

Colonel Taliaferro in person presents a striking figure. Over six feet tall, erect aa 
an Indian, and with a high, intellectual cast of features, he commands attention at a 
glance. His legal attainments are of an excellent order. Added to them are great 
oratorical powers, and superior mental attributes. He is ever dignified, but, withal, one 
of the most gentlemanly and genial of men ; is ever generous to assist the needy, and 
ever ready to do what is in his power to advance progressive civilization. He is the 
attorney for the Alabama National Bank, the Sloss Furnace Company, the Birmingham 
Iron Works, and other large corporations, and has large real estate interests. 

Colonel Taliaferro has been connected, aa counsel, with some of the most import- 
ant cases in Jefferson County. His first legal experience in the State was in 1877-78, 
in the federal court at Huntsville, when he defended some prominent citizens of Ten- 
nessee upon a charge of counterfeiting, and after two trials of five weeks each, suc- 
ceeded in securing an acquittal. Associated with him was John B. Walker, ex-Governor 
David P. Lewis, ex-Governor John C. Brown, General JosepTi Wheeler, William M. 
Lowe, ex-United States Senator Luke Prior, Hon. David E. Shelby, Governor E. O. 
Nsal, and others. Four of them were allowed to argue the defense, and Colonel Talia- 
ferro was one of tlie number. 

Colonel Taliaferro is a Knight Templar. 

He was united in marriage October 13, 1874, with Miss Eva, daughter of Colonel 
J. W. Sloss, of Birmingham. Four children have been born to them, two of whom are 
living — Edwin T. and Mary. 



34^ Jefferson County. 



U/illiam meCinn Brooks. ;A'' Alabama roads lead to Birmingham/- 
' ' ' ' » The most distinguished acquisition to the 

legal profession resident in the city has been recently announced in the arrival of 
Judge Brooks. No lawyer now living, or who has ever lived, in this State, is better or 
more honorably known at its supreme court bar than he. 

There is no one branch of the legal practice in which Judge Brooks has not 
acquired en\'iable fame. His mental equipoise, his profound study, his power of argu- 
ment, his sound observation, and his personal force, qualify him to take up cases of the 
greatest magnitude in every branch of the profession, and to stand in all the peer of the 
foremost counselor before the bar of judgment. He is a great lawyer in civil practice, 
because he has mastered the philosophy of the law in its widest ranges and its pro- 
foundest intricacies. He is a great criminal lawyer, because, added to the most thor- 
ough comprehension of the spirit andintentof criminal laws, he is in ardent sympathy 
with the society in which he lives, a man of the people, and a judge of the motives of 
classes of people and of individual men, par excelknce. 

Judge Brooks probably never wrote a rhyme among the millions of lines he has 
written touching every phase of public and private rights and social reform. The great 
theme of life has been his studv for full half century. He has given utterance to opin- 
ions matured amid the gravest problems of politics and society. No thinker with less 
ardent sympathy with the life of the whole people around him could so successfully 
have commanded attention and approbation and fame. 

William M. Brooks was born in 181.5, in Sumter Dis trict, South Carolina. He came 
of Virginia stock, who had espoused the cause of the colonies in the war for American 
Independence. The parents, AVilliam ^Jliddleton and Elizabeth Brooks, nee Watson, 
both natives of Virginia, immigrated from that State to South Carolina, and then to 
Alabama, in 18o3, and settled in the rich county of Mareng o, for long one of the four 
richest counties in the State. The father soon died, after reaching the Alabama home. 
William M. was recalled from the South Carolina College at Columbia, then the most 
aristocratic educational institution in theCotton States, to return to Alabama to assume 
charge of his deceased father's estate, and to care for a large family — the widowed 
mother and 6e.ven daughters . The youth proved equal to the emergency of his strange 
situation. He found time to continue his literary studies and to read law as well. In 
1838 he was licensed to practice, being then in his twenty-third year. He optned a 
law office in Linden, the Marengo County seat, and became associated in the practice 
with William Robinson, a wealthy cotton planter of the vicinage, who had lately moved 
to Marengo from Charleston, South Carolina. Two years after entering the practice 
Mr. Brooks was elected district solicitor. In this office he acquired high reputation. 
Some cases of extraordinary importance were prosecuted by him, in which he encoun- 
tered such lawyers as Murphy, John Erwin, Henley, F, S. Lyon, Manning, and others, 
whose names adorn the record of the bench and bar of Alabama. Solicitor Brooks 
prosecuted Gaines, a young man, for the murder of his stepfather, Curry, on the 
streets of Linden. The ablest criminal lawyer then in the circuit, Murphy, of Eutaw, 
w^s called in to oppose the solicitor. It was in this case that Murphy, in the course of 
his address, became so impassioned and aroused by his theme that, stooping to the 
floor, with his ear down, he listened to hear the mutterings of Curry's soul in Hades, 
and told the jury what he had heard ! 

After six years of distinguished success as State prosecutor in the circuit, Mr. 
Brooks resigned his office, and at once entered upon a general practice, which has 
never been surpassed and seldom equaled in this State, in the essentials of great causes 



Biographical. 343 



stoutly fought, great principles incorporated in tin- niiiuuon law, ami riih [lecuniary 
rewards to the practitioner. 

In person, Judge Brooks is of medium height, well proportioned, with elastic and 
easy carriage. A massive chin, clear, steel-gray eye, broad brows, always a clean shaven 
face, and attire scrupulously neat, make the tout enscmhle of one of the most striking 
personnels among all the lawyers at any of the courts of the State. 

The status of Judge Brooks at the bar of Alabama is disclosed in the reports of the 
supreme court cases, covering some forty-five years. His legal biography is there writ- 
ten to endure forever. The reported cases, in which his name as counsel appears, 
cover, as we have said, the whole range of the practice. The most decisive special cases 
going to develop the constitutional protection of the rights of the people to the enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and property, there appear. The briefs in these cases are all alike 
in the evidence they expose of the legal force of the counsel. They are thorough state- 
ments of each case in its bearing upon the science of law and upon the facts upon 
which the cause 'entered the court. There is not a superfluous word injected, nor a 
cognate theory of the law omitted. Whatever manuscript in the counsel's handwriting 
may come up with the papers, is in bold, clear characters, the pages neatly folded, and 
all the accompanying papers arranged with that method which a merchant's confiden- 
tial clerk might be expected to practice. The clearness of the mental processes, the 
vigor of the logic, the forcefulness of the language used, comprise the channels through 
which the profound knowledge of the lawyer reaches the court. 

As a jury lawyer Judge Brooks is powerful, impressive, and most successful. He 
seems never to have learned any of the platitudes of the schools of rhetoric. The client is 
his friend who has a just cause to be advocated, and the advocate is a part of that cause. 
It has become a personal matter with him to explain its claims to the jury's undivided 
and prompt consent. The words in which his thoughts flow are not chosen — they 
belong naturally to the case. With vehemence and rapidity they flow on without halt 
or stammer. The manner is the manner of the speaker absolutely absorbed by his sub- 
ject. There is no posing for effect, and no thought that a moment will come when pos- 
ing for effect will be in order. Nervous energy of manner, which comes from energy of 
thought, expresses the oratory. This enthusiastic address may continue for a half hour, 
or for three hours. The speaker begins where his subject begins, and ends where that 
which he had to say is finished. Judge, jury, nor spectators believe that he has even 
then said all that he might, if disposed to proceed with his argument. 

Politics were the pastime of the educated Southern gentry in the old regime. The 
plantation life of ease in the country, and the town life of regularity in all avocations, 
marked the entire population. The changes in the seasons alone disturbed the current 
of rural prosperity. In town, the lawyers had only great cases, to be heard in a few 
regular courts, months apart, while the merchants bought goods in New York in spring 
and autumn, and collected their o\\ n open accounts but once a year, at any time from 
January 1 to March or April. 

Politics agitated the entire educated class of whites, but, of course, never entered 
the ranks of the blacks. Whosoever felt himself equal to a stump speech was certain 
to experiment with his gift. Thus, among the whole number of experimenters, the 
rule of the survival of the fittest was sure to take effect and rule the constituency. The 
writer, then a mere lad, was moved to attend a great meeting of the people of Marengo 
County at Linden. The question to be discussed was, "The Rights of the South in the 
Territories." 

The question was entangled in Mr. Clay's latest compromise, which repealed the 
next previous compromise. There was very strong talk in South Carolina then about 



344 Jefferson County. 



"disrupting every tie that bound her to the Union." Mr. Calhoun was dead, and the 
brunt of the secession movement fell upon the Charleston Mercury. A convention of 
the State of Georgia, meanwhile, had deliberated on the situation, and decided to wait 
forthe "next aggressive movement." Thereupon, South Carolinaresolved "to acquiesce 
under existing circumstances." Pending all this, the Governor of Alabama, Collier,, 
was roundly abused by pretty much everybody because he did not know exactly what 
ought to be done with the Alabama militia, if the Federal army should be sent down 
to South Carolina to take possession. 

Of course, as naturally as water would seek its level, Mr. Brooks entered vigorously 
into the discussion of all these great questions. He was a South Carolinian, and must 
needs stand squarely up for his State in a trouble of that kind. The Linden meeting 
filled the capacious courthouse to the utmost. The planters from all parts of the coun- 
try were the audience. The county had long been well known as Whig, for Clay, and 
the Union. The violent agitation of the slavery question in Congress had begun to tell 
upon public sentiment. When the meeting organized, so precarious was the polit- 
ical complexion that it elected F. S. Lyon, ex-member of Congress, and a conservative 
Democrat, Chairman, and Joel C. DuBose, a Whig and Union man of much personal 
popularity. Secretary. Discussion began, and a committee was appointed, with Andrew 
P. Calhoun, son of the dead statesman, Chairman. The committee retired to a sepa- 
rate room and deliberated until dark, and being composed of the friends of both polit- 
ical views, could make no united report. Meanwhile, Mr. Alston, member of Congress, 
and Mr. Shields, a very handsome man and able speaker, made long speeches to the 
meeting. The Congressman was a Union Democrat, and compromise man. Mr. Shields 
had been to Congress and been in the diplomatic service, and was a Union man. 
Toward the close of this great day of discussion and excitement, the young lawyer, Mr. 
Brooks, took the stand to speak. He at once arrested attention. Plaudits began, 
shouts and hurrahs followed. The audience was growing wild with enthusiasm — at 
least, that part which agreed with the orator. Impelled by their sympathy, he mounted 
a chair, and then got firmly upon the judge's desk, above the heads of all, and plead 
for South Carolina and "the rights of the South in the Territories." After Mr. Brooks 
left his elevated position, and sufficient quiet had taken possession, a division of the 
house showed the " Southern Rights " men to be in the majority. Mr. Brooks' speech 
was the only pronounced argument of the day. The Democratic orators were com- 
promise meu ; the Whigs were for waiting an " overt act " to assert the right of seces- 
sion. Brooks had settled opinions upon current events, and spoke them out with no 
uncertain sound. 

The year following Mr. Brooks moved to Mobile, to a broader field for the exercise 
of his talents. He entered there into copartnership with Mr. A. R. Manning, a law- 
yer of high ability, and especially in the equity branch of the practice. Mr. Manning 
afterward became a member of the Alabama Supreme Court. Mr. Brooks rose at 
once to the front rank at the Mobile bar. The yellow-feyer scourge of 1853, unequaled 
in virulence and duration, drove him from his new home. He then settled in Marion. 

Previous to Mr. Brooks' removal to RIobile he had been a partner with William M. 
Byrd, a famous equity lawyer, who afterward sat on the State Supreme Court Bench, 

In the midst of a very lucrative practice at the courts of several of the richest 
counties of the State, Mr. Brooks was appointed |by Governor John Anthony Winston, 
the " Old Hickory of Alabama," to the circuit judgeship. In a few months he was 
elected to a full term by the people, without opposition. He did not want the office, 
but he wanted to study more of the books of his profession than he could do in active 
practice, and accepted it, not altogether contentedly. In the period of Judge Brooks*' 



Biographical. 345- 



service on the bench, the celebrated case of the State versai Dorman was tried. The 
decision fixed finally in Alabama the difference between the powers of the State Con- 
stitution over the people, and the functions of the Federal Constitution. 

In 1856 Mr. Brooks made many able political speeches before large audiences in 
favor of Buchanan and Breckinridge. One of these addres.ses was delivered at a grand 
protracted political meeting at Union Town. Among the orators was the famous Wil- 
liam L. Yancey. It fell to Mr. Brooks' part to follow Mr. Yancey, and that he was able 
to interest the audience, under the circumstances, is evidence that he had remarkable 
capacity as a stump speaker. 

Judge Brooks soon retired from the bench, and resumed his practice. It was at 
this period that he formed a partnership with Mr. I. W. Garrott, of Marion. Mr. Gar- 
rott, then Brigadier General in the Confederate Army, was killed in the siege of Vicks- 
burg. 

Judge Brooks had never sought political office. He did not desire office of any kind. 
His political views, as pronounced at the Linden meeting of 1850, had been consistently 
adhered to. He had quietly studied the questions involved, and on all proper occa- 
sions discussed them fearlessly and ably before the people. He held his audiences as 
long as he chose to speak. He was in no sense a demagogue. His addresses were 
intended to enlighten public opinion, and they invariably had that effect. He was not: 
of the mental or moral nature of a " compromise man." 

When the Democrats, then virtually the people of Alabama, held their convention 
in January, 1860, to appoint delegates to the forthcoming Charleston convention, called 
to nominate a candidate of the party for the Presidency, Mr. Brooks was made one of 
the delegates to Charleston, and withdrew from that convention with the Alabama del- 
egation. He took a very active and influential part in the canvass for Breckinridge and 
Lane in Alabama, delivering, among many other speeches, a very able one at Selma, 
along with Judge S. F. Rice, John T. Morgan, C. C. Pegues, and others of the chief 
speakers of that section of the State. 

When the Alabama convention was called to formally secede from the Union, Judge 
Brooks was honored with election to the presidency of that august assemblage. There 
sat W. L. Yancey, John T. Morgan, John Cochran, E. C. Bullock, and scores of the 
ablest men in the State. 

During the war Judge Brooks was chairman of a committee to provide sustenance 
for the support of the families of Confederate soldiers, non-slaveholders of the hill 
country in the vicinage of Birmingham and Jefferson County. Toward the latter 
months of the war he was appointed Colonel of a regiment of reserve troops. ^ 

In 1860 Judge Brooks moved to Selma, and at once became absorbed in a very v 
heavy and lucrative practice, involving many questions arising in one phase of civil- 
ization and relegated to another for adjustment. His profound study of the problems 
brought forward has increased his fame as a lawyer. 

Of late years Judge and Mrs. Brooks, in beautiful co-operation, have labored in the 
cause of "prohibition." 

Early in life Judge Brooks married Miss Terrell, a daughter of a Marengo County 
cotton planter. William, Richard, and I da — two sons and a daughter — were born to this y^ 
union. At the age of seventeen William entered the Confederate army, and rose to- 
the rank of Captain. 

The first wife having died. Judge Brooks married a very accomplished Virginia, 
lady. Miss Annie E. Thomas. 

After twenty years residence in Selma, Judge Brooks is now an esteemed resident 



346 Jefferson Cojcnty. 



of the city of Birmingham. Coming here, he took into copartnership with him John 
Vary, a nephew, and a young lawyer of ahiiity and high promise. The tirm is now 
Broolis, Bush & Vary. 

Jan\OR F W;^tl/HnS present Solicitor for Jeflferson County, was born at Ely- 
\ ■ / \ I ' ton, in the residence now owned and occupied by Dr. A. 

Eubank, near the " Big Spring," April 10, 1851, the third son of Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins. 

He comes from an ancestry, on both sides, of honest, sturdy, and industrious stock, 
making no pretension to nor coveting any of the glitter and show of life, but resting 
deservedly upon genuine worth. His grand father, Williamson Hawkins, was one of the 
first white men to invade the forest of Jones Valley with his gun and axe, and share 
its primitive fastnesses with the Indian, the bear, and the panther, having settled in 
the valley from South Carolina, about where Woods Station or Woodlawn now is, in 
the year 1813, soon afterward moving over to Village Creek, on what has, for three- 
quarters of a century, been known as the Hawkins plantation, the property now 
embracing Pratt Mines and the Thomas plant, where he lived until his death, in 1876, 
leaving a large number of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great 
great grandchildren. Out of five sons, his third son, Nathaniel, alone showed any taste 
or disposition for acquiring more than an ordinary education, and he became a ripe 
scholar, and after his marriage, attended a medical college in New York, and made rep- 
utation, during a long and useful life, as a physician of extraordinary judgment and 
skill, and, dying in 1877, left his family comfortable in worldly goods and rich in the 
heritage of a good name. 

The wife of Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins was Miss Maria Welton, daughter of a farmer 
in New England, whose familj- comprised the original proprietors of the towns of 
Farmington, Mattatuck, Waterbury, and other New England colonial towns, all of 
whom held, with sacred fidelity, to the articles signed in 1674. Miss Welton proved a 
strong and congenial helpmate, with her energy, nerve, and fine accomplishments, to 
her young Southern husband, and much of his success is justly accredited to her influ- 
ence and ambition. She was practically the founder of the Episcopal Church in Jef- 
ferson County, and, without a pastor or a joint communicant for forty years, held to 
the faith and labored for her church until she lived to see a new generation grow up to 
support her cherished cause as she declined down the hill of life. She died in 1883, at 
the age of seventy-six years, at the old homestead at Elyton. 

As all Southern fortunes were swept away by the war, the training young James' 
father had given him as a farmer boy stood him in good turn now, for he and his 
younger brothers took up the plow and finished out the rows, where the negroes had 
left them when Wilson's raid stopped farming operations here in the spring of 1865. 
For four years he continued to make a good hand, when needed, on the farm. In 1869 
the University of Alabama was in the hands of a radical board, who were little better 
than the vandals who destroyed the buildings. Mr. Hawkins therefore decided to 
enter the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn. He was the seventeenth student 
who matriculated in that institution. He remained at college three years and finished 
his course as then prepared there, but took no degrees, as the University had not then 
arranged degrees. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Mudd, in September, 
1872, after six months hard study in a law office. In November, of the same year, he 
married Miss Tempe Fitts, of Tuscaloosa, and has since practiced law in this county. 
He inherits, in a large degree, the combined virtues of his parents, having the activity, 
push, sagacity, and ambition of the Yankee, and the courage, judgment, common 
sense, and genial afiability of his paternal Southern ancestry. Unlike his relatives 





6Ut^ 



tT^^- 



Biographical. 349 



here, he soon showed a decided taste for public lite, and his profession gave hiiu full 
opportunities to cultivate this taste. He became at once prominent as a worker and 
writer in the hard-fought political contests waged after he attained majority. 

In December, 1874, he moved to Shelby County, to take a law partnership with 
Senator John T. Morgan, who was then overloaded with practice in that county, and 
just entering into politics. He remained there for only two years, the only period of 
his life spent in residence outside of Jefferson County. While in Shelby County with 
Mr. William McMath, now deceased, Mr. Hawkins founded and edited the Shelby 
Sentinel, now owned and published by Mr. MeCall, at Calera, and did strong work 
for the cause of good government and white supremacy in that part of the State. 
After returning home, he bought an interest in the Jefl'erson Independent, and for 
four years was the political editor of that influential paper. For some time he was 
general guardian of the county, and resigned this position in 1881. In 1880 he was the 
Democratic nominee for representative in the lower house of the legislature, and was 
defeated, after a hot contest on the stump, by a majority of seven. Again, in 1SS2, he 
was the Democratic candidate for representative, and defeated his former opponent, 
and served for that term with great credit to himself and benefit to his constituents, being 
on the judiciary committee, chairman of committee on mining and manufacturing, 
and one of the leading debaters on the floor of the house. In December, 1880, he was 
appointed assistant solicitor for this county, and served in that capacity for six years, 
proving an able prosecuting officer. In December, 1884, he was elected by the legisla- 
ture solicitor for Jeflferson County, and again re-elected to that office by the legislature 
in December, 1886. He has a wife and six children, and is proud of his native country, 
and enjoys its progress and prosperity. He had three brothers and two sisters. His 
eldest brother. Captain Williamson M., was a brilliant young doctor, and gave up his 
life for the Southern cau.se, being killed in the battle of Murfreesboro, while leading 
his company in a charge. 

His next oldest brother, Richard N., is also a doctor, and now living at Elyton, 
while Hobart W., the youngest, is a successful and progressive farmer, and also lives at 
Elyton. His eldest sister, Sarah, is the wife of French Nabers, and lives at Monte- 
vallo. The other sister, Amy, who was the wife of Ellis Phelan, died at Birmingham, 
in 1881. 

Mr. Hawkins was one of the few native Jefferson County young men who appre- 
ciated the grand advantages possessed by this county, and has kept apace with its 
rapid progress, and enjoys the fruits of its development, and has been amply able to 
hold his own with the splendid intellect and energy that has crowded his profession 
from nearly every State of the Union. His high sense of justice, even-tempered judg- 
ment, and firm discretion, backed by a thorough knowledge of law and long experi- 
ence in criminal prosecution, makes him an officer that the courts and attorneys 
respect and admire, and his genial humor, kind heart, and affable nature, has won 
friends of all his county people, and very many throughout the State. 

Jnhn rn^Rnn rHarUn Representative from the Sixth Congressional Dis- 
*-"/'/ /'l«^0^7 /H«l'»-"/» trict of Alabama, is a descendant of distinguished 
ancestors. His father's lineage traces to the Huguenots, who sought America 
before the llevolution. They became settlers of South Carolina, and subse- 
quently removed to Virginia, but his father was born in Tennessee. His mother was 
a member of the historic Mason family of Virginia, and cousin of John Y. Mason, who 
descended from Colonel John Mason, a British subject, and soldier in the army of 
Charles I. l'jK)n the execution of that monarch, Colonel Jfason fled to America, and 



35° Jefferson County. 



from him descended the Mason family, one of the most celebrated in Virginia. Joshua 
Lanier Martin, the father of our subject, was a stalwart figure in the history of Ala- 
bama. Born in Blount County, Tennessee, December 5, 1799, and receiving but a plain 
English education, by native and inherent attributes he rose to become the Governor 
of a great State, and only his untimely death, in the full meridian of life and useful- 
ness, prevented him from achieving still greater honors. Joshua L. Martin began the 
study of law in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where he was licensed, and in 1819 
came to Alabama, and finished his law studies with his brother in Franklin County. 
He began practice in Athens, in Limestone County, where he continued until 1839, 
when he removed to Tuscaloosa, where he continued in active life until his death. 

Governor Martin's political life began in 1822, when he was chosen to represent 
his district in the State legislature, where he was continued until 1827, excepting the 
session of 1826. 

In 1829 he was elected solicitor of the (then) fourth judicial circuit, and subse- 
quently judge of the circuit court. 

In 1835 he was elected to C!ongress, and re-elected in 1837. In 1841 he was chosen 
one of the State chancellors, and in 1845 elected Governor of the State, serving one 
term. In 1853 he was elected to the lower house for the purpose of aiding legislation 
in securing the passage of the charter for the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Com- 
pany. This was his last appearance in public life, as he died in 1856, deeply deplored 
throughout the State. Seldom, in the history of a public man, have honors been thrust 
BO quickly upon him, and seldom, indeed, have they been so fairly and honorably 
administered. 

Governor Martin was never defeated for a public office, owing his success to the 
unfaltering devotion of the young men of the State, whom he endeared to him by the 
great kindness of his heart, and the great interest he ever displayed for their material 
progress and advancement. He was twice married, each time to a sister of Hon. Wil- 
liam J. Mason, and left four sons. 

John Mason Martin was born January 20, 1837, and received the best education 
the schools of the country aflbrded. He entered the State University, and was a stu- 
dent there for over two years. Resigning, he was admitted to Centre College, Danville, 
Ky., and was graduated from that institution in 1856. Deciding upon the profession of 
law, he became a student under Hon. E. W. Peck, who was subsequently chief justice 
of the State, and in August, 1858, was admitted to practice by the supreme court. 

Commencing practice in Tuscaloosa, he continued until April, 1861, when he 
enlisted in the first company organized there, and was assigned to the Fifth Alabama 
Infantry. He remained with that regiment for over one year, when, on account of 
disability, he was discharged. Unwilling to remain out of the service, he accepted an 
appointment as captainandassistant quartermaster of the Forty-first Alabama Infantry, 
remaining with that regiment for a period of twenty months. His health unfitting him 
for the duties of that position, he was transferred to Montgomery, and appointed post 
quartermaster. In this important position his genius for business asserted itself, and 
with one auditor and twelve chief clerks he dispatched the business which had pre- 
viously demanded the services of a number of officers. He found the office in disorder, 
and the service being inefficiently administered, but in a short period he brought order 
from chaos, and until the clo.se of the war conducted the business of this important 
branch of the service in a masterly manner. In this position he was called upon to 
collect, manufacture, receive, and ship the stores, clothing, and all supplies for a large 
army, having also in charge the Alabama penitentiary, which he had converted into a 



Biographical. 351 



manufactory for army supplies, having in charge never less than 400 men. That his 
work was well performed the records well attest. 

Finding liimself at the close of the war in destitute circumstances, he entered pro- 
fessional life with great ardor, but was soon prostrated by paralysis. Upon regaining 
health he entered political life, and in August, 1871, was elected State Senator to fill a 
vacancy, and, in 1872, was chosen for a full term. During the five years of this service 
he was for three years the president p^o tempore of that body. Refusing re-election he 
prosecuted vigorously his profession for eight years. 

In 1875 he was elected professor of equity jurisprudence in the State University, 
and at the same time the board of trustees, at the request of the faculty, graduated 
him with the degree of A.M., and directed that his name should be enrolled with his 
original class. 

In 1884, yielding to the wishes of the Democracy of his district, he was nominated 
and elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. In the first session of his service he was a mem- 
ber of the committees of elections and patents, and was one of the six Democrats who 
voted against the consideration of the " Morrison tariff bill." This act giving ofiense 
to the agricultural portion of his district,, he was defeated for renomination, to the great 
regret of a large class, who admired his devotion to principle, his superior ability, and 
the thorough business methods with which he dispatched the laborious duties of this 
•important position. It is deeply to be dejjlored that Captain Martin should be retired 
at the period when Alabama, just starting upon an era of prosperity, needs in the Con- 
gress of the United States men whose grasi> of thought is equal to the debate of the great 
problems of the day. Suffice it to say, that in the brief period of his service he is 
lecognized as one of the leaders of his party. 

September 11, 1886, Captain Martin formed an association with Captain A. B. 
McEachin, of Tuscaloosa, and in October, 1886, they removed to Birmingham, where 
they are now in practice. 

It is wonderful, considering his delicate physical organization, that he has contin- 
ued so long in active life. Never po.ssessing good health, it is only an indomitable 
will, and a resolution to do or die, has enabled him to accomplish the amount of labor 
which he has accomplished. An able lawyer and a thorough business man, and pos- 
eessing the varied experiences of a busy professional and political life, he will always 
be a prominent factor in the history of Alabama, and add much to the bench and bar 
of JefTerson County. 

He was married November 24, 1857, to Miss Lucy C. Peck, daughter of his pre- 
ceptor, Hon. E. W. Peck, of Tuscaloosa. To them have been born nine children, four 
of whom are now living — AVolsey R., a lawyer of Fort Smith, Arkansas ; Lucy G. A., 
Sarah M., and Lydia P. 

Captain Martin is a member of the Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, and a 
Knight Templar. 

RobSrt HCDrV StSrrStt P'""""'"^"'' among the lawyers of Jefferson 
V / ' / * County, and the present representative of the 

county in the State senate, is the gentleman whose biography follows. He is a native 
of the State, born in Shelby County April 22d, 1846. His ancestors were all emigrants 
from the British Isles, and settled in the " Old Dominion " State during the early colo- 
nial period. His paternal grandfather and wife emigrated from Virginia, where he waa 
born, and settled near Bowling Green, Ky., subsequently removing to Alabama, where 
they resided until their death, near Montevallo. 

The father of Mr. Sterrett, Alphonso A. Sterrett, wae born in Kentucky, and came, 



35-2 Jejfersoii County. 



wlien a youth, ti) Alabama, where he rewded until bis deatli in l^T(i. He occupied a 
I'onspicuous place in the history of the State. He was a law student under Chancellor 
Clark, admitted to the bar in 1831, and before the age of 22 was elected Judge of Shelby 
County Court. He was thrice a representative in the legislature, and also a member of 
the convention which framed the present State constitution. He was twice married. 
The mother of Robert Henry was a native of South Carolina — her maiden name was 
Elizabeth M. Gooch. She died in 1849. Her ancestry is traced to Scotland, subse- 
quently to Virginia, and thence to the Carolinas. Her father, Henry Gooch, came to 
Alabama in 1822, where he remained until his death, which occurredin Shelby County. 

Some portions of the following sketch are from an article which appeared in the 
New South : 

" Robert H. Sterrett entered the University of Alabama as a cadet, remaining until 
July, 1864, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in Company C, 62d Regiment 
Alabama Volunteers, C. S. A. As a Confederate soldier he actively participated in the 
defense of Spanish Fort and Blakely, near the city of Mobile, where he was captured 
and imi^risoned, first on Ship Island and afterward in New Orleans. On his liberation, 
in 186.5, he returned home, and, finding his favorite university closed on account of the 
destruction of its buildings by the Federal troops, he at once set out in search of an 
educatinn. He first applied for admisssion to the University of North Carolina, but, 
finding the term near its close, concluded to return home. On his way he found the 
University of Georgia just opening, and January 1, 1866, he entered that institution 
and remained until the close of the .session. In October, 1866, lie entered the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, taking a special classical and literary course, and remained in that 
famous school until June, 1807. Returning home, he entered the law office of his 
father. Judge A. A. Sterrett, under whose valuable instruction he remained one year; 
then entering the law school of Lebanon University, Tennessee, he graduated with 
high honor in June, 1869. Commencing the practice of his profession in Selma, Ala- 
bama, he rapidly grew in public and profe.ssional reputation, and remained in that city 
for ten vears, during which time he labored zealou.sly in erecting the beautiful monu- 
ment to the memory of the Confederate soldiers, and in freeing his beloved State from 
the misrule of the adventurers, who, with the aid of ignorant negroes, had seized upon 
its government. His ability and earnestness contributed largely to the election of the 
lamented Houston, in 1S74, as Governor of the State, and to the adoption of the present 
constitution in 1875. In September, 1879, he removed to Birmingham, where he now 
resides, and where he has, solely on his own merits, built up a lucrative and extensive 
practice. For several years he was superintendent of the Sabbath school connected 
with the First Baptist Church of Birmini;ham, and also one of the trustees and 
deacons of the same church. At present he is one of the officers of the Baptist 
church on the South Side, in Birmingham, and chairman of the committee raised by 
the Baptist State convention, looking to the location of a Baptist college at Birmingham 
or some other desirable point in Alabama. In 1884, the people of the Thirteenth Sena- 
torial District, recognizing his peculiar fitness for the position, elected him to the State 
senate. At the last session of the legislature, his superb qualities as a lawyer and legis- 
lator shone conspicuously in the passage of many measures of vital interest to his dis- 
trict and his State. The bill prohibiting the employment of convicts in the mines, or 
on railroads, except in cases involving moral turpitude, the bill for improving the mode 
of summoning juries, the bill permitting employes to sue and recover damages for inju- 
ries inflicted by employers the same as other persons, the bill repealing the levy of 
two per cent, tax on capital, the bill creating the city court of Birmingham, and one, 
requiring the public roads of Jeflerson County to be worked by contract, the joint mem- 



Biographical. 353 



orial to Congress asking for Federal aid to education on the basis of illiteracy, and that 
aid so granted be disbursed by the State authorities. All these important measures 
were actively and earnestly pressed by Mr. Sterrett. He also labored earnestly to secure 
the passage of the bill, introduced by himself, to secure better accommodations for pas- 
sengers at the railroad depots in Alabama, and was largely instrumental in the defeat 
of the bill conferring extraordinary powers on the railroad commission. He also favored 
and passed, through the senate, the bill requiring convicts to be returned to their homes 
before their term of service expired, the bill extending street railways beyond the 
limits of towns and cities, the bills greatly changing the laws of descent and of mar- 
ried women, the criminal court of Jefferson County, the State school of technology, and 
a number of other measures looking to the interest of his city, county, and State." 

While in the senate, Mr. Sterrett served on the following committees: Judiciary, 
internal improvements — of which he was chairman, revision of the journal, and priv- 
ileges and^jlections. He also served upon several important joint committees of con- 
ference of the two houses. 

Mr. Sterrett was married in 1878 to Miss Carrie Bell Cleveland, of Selma, a daughter 
of Morgan S. Cleveland, who was a prominent citizen there. They are the parents of 
two children — William C. and Roberta. He lives very comfortably in his own house 
in Birmingham, and has prospered here. 

" The life of Robert H Sterrett has been most marked in respect to its activity and 
usefulness. He is one of those rare cliaracters of whom it can be justly said: 'The 
world is better for bis having lived in it.' Possessing rare mental endowments, a power 
of analysis and perceptions of the keenest character, he rarely, if ever, makes mistakes, 
either in men or measures. As a worker, he is indefatigable ; as a debater, wonder- 
fully clear and forcible, and being scrupulously fair and unwaveringly honest, he has 
attained to a position, in the public estimation, second to none of his age in this great 
State. His character, for purity and personal goodness, coupled with his singular fit- 
ness for positions of responsibility, will make him a prominent figure in his State for 
many years to come. While he has no taste for a political career, and would far rather 
devote himself exclusively to his profession, yet his stern sense of the duties of Ameri- 
can citizenship will not permit him to decline public service when the people shall, in 
the future, as they have in the past, require it of him." 

JamOK I C '?^TroV^ was born in North Carolina, in 1837. His father, a native 
' '\ J' ^ North Carolinian, was of Scotch-Irish and English extrac- 

tion. His mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Sasnette, was of French descent, 
and also a native of North Carolina. They were married in that State, and emigrated 
to Alabama about the year 1838. They lived for a time in Sumter County, subse- 
quently in Pickens, and finally in Greene County, where they resided until their 
deaths. His mother died in 1875, and his father the following year. His father was a 
mechanic and farmer. 

There were twelve children in the family, he being the fifth. Seven of this num- 
ber attained their majority, of whom five are still living. Their places of residence 
are: Mrs. Eliza Johnson, Carrollton, Mississippi; Mrs. Bettie Latimer, Greensboro,. 
Alabama ; Jes.se L., Springviile Alabama ; W. C. Garrett, now special examiner of the 
Pension Bureau, of the Department of the Interior, with oflBceat Nashville, Tennessee. 

The subject of this sketch was reared mostly in Greene County, Alabama, and 
received his early educational advantages in Forkland, where his father lived, and sub- 
sequently went to the University of Alabama, then among the most renowned institu- 
tions of learning in the South. He graduated in the year 1856. In the same year he 
20 



554 Jefferso7i Co2i7ity. 



began the study of law in the office of James D. Webb, of Greensboro, Alabama, \^ ho was 
then one of the foremost lawyers of the State. He was admitted to the bar in 1857, and 
began practice in Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama, and lived there until 1860, edit- 
ing the Livingston Messenger during two years of the time. He entered the Confed- 
erate Army as a private in Company G, 44th Alabama regiment, and remained with it 
eighteen months, and was then appointed to a position in the Ordnance Department 
of the Army of Northern Virginia as sergeant. He was in the struggle from the be- 
ginning to the end, and was in nearly all the battles of the above army, and in many 
of those of the Western army. After the battle of Sharpsburg he was in Law's brigade, 
of Hood's division, Longstreet's corps, until early in 1865, when, after a competitive 
examination, at Petersburg, he was commissioned in the artillery and ordnance, and. 
ordered to duty at the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia. He passed 
through all this bloodshed unharmed. 

Shortly after the close of the war, he went to Greensboro, and resumed the practice 
of his profession. He was engaged continually there for nearly fifteen years, and 
thoroughly established himself as one of its most successful and ablest lawyers. His 
reputation was not bounded by local lines, but extended throughout his portion of the 
State, which had, during all this period, some of the brightest legal minds before the 
Alabama bar. In the year 1880 he went to Gallatin, Tennessee, and remained there 
one year. Early in 1882 he came to Birmingham, and was associated with the Hon. 
Ellis Phelan, afterward Secretary of State under Gov. E. A. O'Neal, and upon the re- 
moval of the latter to the State of Connecticut, formed a new copartnership with Oscar 
W. Underwood, which still continues. 

Reared in the political faith of the old Whig party, since the war Mr. Garrett has 
always been an ardent supporter of the Democratic party, and has rendered that party 
most valuable services. He has held no political position, as the demands of his prac- 
tice engrossed most of his time, and has never been an office seeker. He is, how- 
ever, one of those characters whom his political associates would delight to honor, and 
his name has frequently been mentioned in connection with high official positions. 

Mr. Garrett was married in 1875, to Miss Celia L. Walton, a native of Greene 
County, Alabama, but at that time a resident of Gallatin, Tennessee. Both himself and 
wife are members of the iL E. Church, South. 

Since his residence in Birmingham, he has devoted himself exclusively to the prac- 
tice of his profession, and has an experience highly gratifying. He is the legal counsel, 
and a stockholder, in some of the staunchest corporations of Birmingham. 

CHrtar C (Plarl^Cnn was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1848. His 
N 5 ' "-^ ' lineage has been well known and respected since the 

fifteenth century, and is of both English and Scotch origin. The parents of Edgar L. 
were. Thomas B. and S. Caroline Clarkson, nee Heriot. They moved from Charleston 
to Columbia, S. C, when their son Edgar was quite young, and lived there until just 
before the close of the " War between the States," when their handsome residence 
was destroyed at the capture and burning of Columbia, in February, 1865. After the 
war they spent much time in Alabama, with their daughter, Mrs. Peter Brj'ce, at Tus- 
caloosa, and, becoming attached to this State, by their request, they were buried at 
Tuscaloosa. 

Edgar L. Clarkson was living with his father's family during the last year of the 
great war of 1861-65. Although only fifteen years old, he then enlisted as a private 
.soldier of the Confederacy in Company K, 7th South Carolina Infantry. In this capac- 



Biographical. 355 



it)' he served as a soldier until the termination of the struggle. He was the youngest 
of his parents' eight sons, who all served in tlie Confederate Army. 

Three years later, Mr. Clarkson graduated as Valedictorian from the University of 
South Carolina, taking the degree of A. B. The year following, he took a diploma in 
the School of Civil and Military Engineering, from the same institution, and immedi- 
ately thereafter came to Alaharaa to live. 

In 1870 Mr. Clarkson entered upon the study of the law, under the instruction of 
that accomplished jurist and most polished gentleman, H. M. Somerville, of Tusca- 
loosa, who is now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. In 1871, he 
was admitted to the bar. He then went to Mobile, and remained a few months in the 
office of Hon. Thomas H. Herndon, afterward member of Congress from that district. 

In 1872 he came to reside in Birmingham, as local law partner with his learned 
instructor, Mr. Somerville. This copartnership terminated after three years dura- 
tion, and then Mr. Clarkson formed a copartnership in the law with Ellis Phelan, 
who later became Secretary of State for Alabama. In 1876 he was appointed to codify 
the city ordinances of Birmingham. In January, 1885, he was appointed Register in 
Chancery for JefTerson County, and in November, 1886, declined reappointment to 
the same office. 

Mr. Clarkson is a careful and learned lawyer, and devotes himself assiduously to 
his profession. He is a student of social science, and has written and lectured on that 
theme. 

In 1875 Mr. Clarkson married Jliss Augusta, daughter of Col. John J. Jolly, of 
Greene County, Ala., a soldier, lawyer, and statesman well known to Alabama history. 
They have five children. Mr. Clarkson belongs to the Episcopal Church. 

ll/illi^/n C ll/^rM is a native of Bibb County, Alabama, and was born April 
V 5th, 1835. He is a son of David AVard, and his ancestral 

history, on the paternal side, is an exceedingly interesting one. His father was a native 
of Edgefield County, South Carolina. His father's father was a Virginian, of direct Eng- 
lish descent, the subject's great grandfather condng over with a party of farmers, who 
landed on Virginia soil about the year 1700. He subsequently went to the State of 
South Carolina. The grandfather and great grandfather were both soldiers in the rev- 
olutionary war, the latter losing his life, and the former an eye, and a great uncle 
dying in the trenches at the siege of Savannah. 

The maternal side of his history is no less interesting. The subject's mother was 
a Georgian by birth, and her ancestry of Virginia origin, who, in turn, were of direct 
English descendants. Some of them also figured in the revolutionary war for inde- 
pendence. Her immediate ancestors immigrated to Georgia some time about the 
beginning of the present century. Her maiden name was A. C. E. Carleton. The sub- 
ject's father and mother were married iu Bibb County, Alabama, some time after their 
immigration to the State, which runs back to an early period in its history. His 
mother died in the year 1859, and his father survived her only one year. The latter 
was a farmer of large means. There were twelve children in the family, several of 
whom attained maturity. 

The subject of this sketch was reared in Bibb County, and received his first school 
training there. After attaining a sufticient age he entered the University of Alabama, 
and graduated, as the first-honor man, in the class of 1858. This was no mean distinc- 
tion. For three years after this he was professor of Pure Mathematics, Rhetoric, and 
Logic, in Howard College, Marion, Alabama, one of the leading and best known insti- 
tutions, noted for the high standard of education attained by its students. 



356 Jefferso7i Cojinty. 



In April, 1861, he entered tlie service of the Confederacy as a private in 
Company G of the Fourth Alabama Infantry, and was in Lee's army of Northern 
"Virginia. He was in the first battle of Manassas, and all the principal battles of Vir- 
ginia up to tlie bloody engagement of Gettysburg, where he was wounded, in the 
charge on Little Kound Top, made by General Hood. He was left on the field of battle 
for six weeks because the condition of his wound would not permit his removal. Here 
he endured all that is conceivable of suffering and hardship. He was exchanged, and 
in the winter of 18()3-6-i was transferred to the Sixty-second Alabama Regiment, and 
became Captain of Company A of that regiment. He remained with this regiment 
until its capture at Blakely, and prior to this was wounded twice at Spanish Fort. 
For some weeks he was a prisoner at Ship Island, where he was guarded by negro soldiers. 
After the close of the war he returned home, and prepared himself for the bar by 
private study. On being admitted he began the practice at Selma, Alabama, in 1866, 
and has always been found, in this field of action, taking a prominent stand before the 
people. He always took a prominent part in politics, except offering for office, and was 
of the " Simon pure " democratic way of thinking. He stood by the people, and 
labored earnestly for their interests in one of the darkest periods of the State's history — 
we refer to the trying times of reconstruction. He did not hesitate to close his office, 
and, at his own expense, traveled through several counties, speaking wherever a crowd 
could be gathered to hear him. He was especially active in the political campaigns of 
1874, 1876, and 1878. At one time he was a member of the city government of Selma, 
and interested himself, to a great extent, in organizing the public schools of the city, 
now one of the most admirable school systems of the State. 

He was defeated for the Mayoralty of Selma in the election of 1877. While never 
holding an office he has frequently acted as special judge, and is now judge in the 
case of the mortgage bondholders against the Selma & New Orleans Railroad and Emi- 
gration Association, and was at one time one of three judges of a special court of the 
Supreme Court of the State, in the case of Baldwin, receiver, against the Liverpool and 
London and Globe Insurance Company, and delivered an opinion in the case. 

In December, 1885, he came to Birmingham and took up his residence, and 
since then has devoted himself entirely to professional labors. He owns considerable 
property here and elsewhere, and, among other things, is the possessor of one of the 
handsomest houses, which is picturesquely situated on the South Highlands, in the city 
of Birmingham. 

He was married, in 1868, to Miss Alice Goodhue, a daughter of Professor A. B. Good- 
hue, of Howard College, Marion, Alabama, in the month of February, 1868 His wife's 
father is now a resident of Gadsden, Alabama. Captain Ward is the father of 
four living children, whose names are Alice Lillian, Julia, May Carleton, and an 
infant. Both the Captain and Mrs. Ward are members of the South Side Baptist 
Church, of Birmingham. Thus, we have, in Captain Ward, the life of a citizen, well 
rounded with the performance of high and honorable duties. 

Dr>Kc>rh /T\pfl(Hnr\/ ^ native of Jefferson County, Alabama, was born 
I'^UDKI I. j-1. /m^j^aui y, October, 1845, and is the son of James and Nancy 
T. McAdory. He lived on the farm until he was seventeen years of age, and then 
entered the University of Tuscaloosa. He left the university in 1863 to enter the army, 
enlisting as private in Company F, Seventh Alabama Cavalry, from which com- 
mand he was transferred to Company H, Twenty-eighth Alabama, having been elected 
second lieutenant in that command. 



Biograpliical. 357 



At the close of the war he entered the University of Mississippi, and graduated in 
the law department, in 18(58, under the tutorship of L. Q. C. Lamar. He commenced 
the practice of law at Elyton in the fall of 1868. Colonel Ellis Phelan was associated 
with him in the practice three years. 

In 1877 Mr. McAdory moved to Birmingham, and is now senior member of the firm 
of McAdory & Gillespie. He served six years as justice of the peace in Jefi'erson County. 

In December, 18G9, he was married to Miss Hattie E. Dupuy, the accomplished 
daughter of Alfred and Julia Dupuy, of Jefferson County. 

Our subject is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and, also, a 
Free and Accepted Mason. 

T:>KnQC Vf \A7Qhh '** ^ descemlant of Henry Y. Webb, one of the early jurists 
JdrrjLu Li. YY LUU of Greene County. He was a native of North Carolina, and 
represented Lincoln County in that State's legislature in 1817. He was appointed Ter- 
ritorial Judge of Alabama in 1818, and settled in Perry County, but soon afterward 
came to Greene. In 1819 he was elected judge of the circuit and supreme court, and 
was holding the distinguished position at the time of his death, in 1823. His wife was 
Eliza, a daughter of Hon. Daniel M. Forney, of Lincoln County, North Carolina, one of 
the prominent families of that section. One of his sons, James Daniel Webb, also stood 
in the front rank in his profession. He represented Greene County in the lower house 
in 1843, and again in 1851. In 1860 he was one of the electors on the Bell Presidential 
ticket, and made an active canvass. He entered the cause of the Confederacy with 
zeal, and in 1862 he assisted to raise the Fifty-first Alabama Cavalry, of which he was 
appointed lieutenant colonel, and subsequently had command of the regiment. While 
at the head of the regiment, sent to guard the retreat of General Bragg's forces, at 
Shelbyville, July 2, 1863, he was mortally wounded, taken prisoner, and died July 19, 
after rendering gallant service. 

His brother, Hon. William P. Webb, a prominent attorney of Greene, now the 
oldest practicing member of that bar, is the father of James E. The mother of our subject 
comes from old Virginia stock. Her maiden name was Martha Bell, a daughter of Captain 
John Bell, who came from Jamestown, Va., to Greene County, Alabama, at an early date. 

The parents of Mr. Webb married in Greensboro, Ala., in 1839 ; the mother died 
in 1875. Seven children are now living — William H., an attorney, living in California, 
where he has served as judge; Rev. F. B. Webb, a Presbyterian minister of Union 
Springs, Ala.; Wirt Webb, a manufacturer; Mrs. Fannie Crawford, of Tuscaloosa; 
Belle an<l Mattie. 

James E. Webb was born in Greene County in 1840, and graduated, with the first 
honor of his class, at the University of Alabama, in the year 1859. He began the 
study of law in the office of his father, and sub.sequently with Thomas H. Herndon, of 
Eutaw, finishing his legal studies in 1860. 

He was one of the first to enter the Confederate service in 1861, and was in contin- 
uous service for four years. He entered the Fifth Alabama Infantry as a private, serv- 
ing in that capacity for one year, and was then promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and 
detailed upon the staff of General R. E. Rhodes, and subsequently was promoted to the 
rank of captain, and assigned' to duty upon the staff of General Stuart, as assistant 
ordnance officer. After the death of Stuart he was transferred to the command of 
General James Dearing, serving as captain of his staff until the fall of Petersburg. He 
■was severely wounded at the battle of Bellfield, being shot through the neck. He, 
however, afterward rejoined his command, and continued in the service until he saw 
the final surrender at Appomattox. 



;58 Jefferson Coujity. 



Nothing iJaunteJ by the desolation following, he immediately counuenced his prac- 
tice at Greensboro, Ala., where he became noted as a brilliant and successful member 
of that bar. In 1885 he removed to Birmingham, having commenced in 1884 in that 
city. Since removing to Birmingham, he has been in copartnership with John P. Till- 
man, who is also a tine lawyer. 

Jlr. Webb is dignified, but cordial, and has established a strong reputation in the 
State. He has a large clientage, and is worthy of his distinguished ancestors. 

Jlr. Webb has been twice married. In 18C6 he was united to Miss Zemula Cress- 
well, a native of Alabama. She departed this life in May, 1874, leaving four children — 
Louisa C, Mattie B., James E., Jr., and Zemula. His second wife was from Greens- 
boro. Her maiden name was Lucilla Webb. 

Jlr. Webb has long been a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is now one of 
the elders of the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Ala. 

Jamoc rn \/pn Wnnco ^^^ native of Fayette County, Alabama; was born 
"/ *\P \ V I \ ^\ in the year 1824, and is a son of Judge Jesse and Ann 

Van Iloose. His father's ancestors were of Dutch extraction, and early settlers of New 
York, prior to the Revolution, in which they were participants, the original name being 
Van Hooscn. Descendants of this family removed to North Carolina, where the father 
of our subject was born. In 1815 he removed to Franklin County, Alabama, where he 
was a pioneer merchant, in connection with William B. Wilson, and was the first clerk of 
the circuit court. They established a large and flourishing trade, among the early set- 
tlers and Indians. In 1821 he became the second or third settler, in what is now Fay- 
ette County, then part of Pickens, and resumed his mercantile operations. He was 
soon forced into politics, and, in 1 820, was elected to the State Senate. He served nearly 
two terms and then resigned. Elected judge of the county court he served until 
Fayette was fully organized, when he also resigned that position, having a distaste for 
politics. He was one of the original board of trustees to locate the University of Ala- 
bama. Continuing business in Fayette County until 1841 he became a merchant of 
Tuscaloosa, where he lived until his death, at Northport, in 1852. He married in 1822. 

His wife's ancestors were early settlers of Virginia, belonging to the Eggleston, 
Cary, and Archer families. She died in 1857, in Tuscaloosa. Two of their children are 
now living — the subject of this sketch, aud Valentine C, a merchant of Birmingham. 

James M. commenced the study of law, in 1847, with Judge E. W. Peck ; was 
admitted to the bar in 1848, and immedi.itely thereafter formed an alliance with his 
preceptor, which copartnership was not dissolved until 1854. He was alsoi associated 
with Hon. E. W. Powell, in copartnership, continuing until Colonel Van Iloose became 
a citizen of Birmingham, in 188-5. 

He has never entered the devious paths of politics, but has achieved a high stand- 
ing in his profession, and added not only luster to the bar of Jefferson County but 
dignity, through personal attributes and high moral worth. 

Colonel Van Hoose has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Susan Alex- 
ander, of an old Virginia family. She died in 1864, leaving two children, both of 
whom have attained prominent positions in professional and business life. The eldest, 
George Wolsey, is an attorney, and is holding the office of Register in Chancery at Tus- 
caloosa, and James Alexander, one of the best known business men of Birmingham. 

The second mai-riage of Colonel Van Iloose occurred in 1870, with Mrs. Annie H. 
Sorsby. Her maiden name was Hill, and she was a native of Greene County, Ala- 
bama. Two children have been bora to this union, Susie and ilary Lee. 

The family are members of the Episcopal Church. 




o 



^c^J^ 



BiograpJiical. 361 



D U J^aKnr in a residence of less tlian one year in Birmingham, achieved a 
' / * ' commanding position among the attornej'S of Jefferson County. 

His parents, Aquila and Francis Tabor, nee Ware, were natives of Georgia, where 
they resided until their marriage, and, in 18:56, immigrated to Lafayette County, Missis- 
sippi, where they resided the remainder of their days. The father departed this life 
in 1878, and the mother in 1881. 

Our subject was the fourth of a family of seven children, and was reared upon 
a farm, which was his father's occupation, and received limited early educational 
advantages. Possessing an ambitious spirit, and endowed with high natural abilities, 
he early decide'd ujion the profession of law, and, at the age of twenty, entered the 
University of Georgia, located at Athens, and, in the fall of 1871, was admitted to the, 
bar at AVater Valley, Jlississippi, where he established an extensive practice, which 
extended also to Lafayette County. In 1878 he removed to Oxford, Lafayette 
County, where he remained for three years, and then joined his brother, K. A. Tabor, 
at Fort Smith, Arkansas, with whom he was associated for a period of one year, the 
firm subsequently becoming Taliaferro, Tabor & Tabor. This alliance continued for 
two years, when Colonel Taliaferro removed to Birmingham. 

In the spring of 1886 ilr. Tabor decided, upon the solicitations of Colonel Talia- 
ferro, to become a resident of the JIagic City, and thus was formed the lirm of Lane, 
Taliaferro & Tabor, one of the strongest legal associations in Alabama. 

Mr. Tabor labored assiduously and faithfully, devoting his entire attention to 
the vast and increasing practice which was entrusted to them, and, in many of the 
most important cases tried in the county, he took a leading part in conducting 
them, and was foremost in the arguments, in which he ranks as one of the best 
speakers in the country. As a criminal lawyer his rank is especially high. 

Mr. Tabor is endowed with what may be termed a natural legal intellect. He 
grasps quickly and accurately legal principles, and discriminates correctly. His mem- 
ory is remarkable, retaining not only principles but the names of codes and books. 
He is an untiring worker, and aggressive in any case he undertakes, from the smallest 
to the greatest. He never looks upon the opposite side, and, determining to win, 
never prepares for defeat. He is personally exceedingly agreeable and prepossessing ; 
his form is tall, erect, and stalwart, denoting a magnificent constitution and perfect 
health ; his nature is frank, genial, and generous ; his hand is as liberal as his heart is 
sympathetic, and his popularity extends to all professions and classes. 

Mr. Tabor has also interested himself in real estate transactions, in which he has 
also been remarkably successful. He is one of the incorporators of the Smithfield 
Land Company, and one of its officers. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias. 

Jlr. Tabor was married October 9, 1875, to Bliss L. E. Oliver, of Eureka, Panola 
County, Mississippi. Four children bless this union, Oliver K., Loise E., Bee, and 
Edward. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tabor are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

John D Tillman is an attorney at law, well and favorably known throughout 
O'/V Y' 1 '""'*^V Alabama. He is a native of Perry County, Alabama, and was 
born in 1849. His parents were John M. and Mary E. Tillman, nee Plummer, who 
were natives of South and North Carolina, respectively. 

Reared in Selma and Marion, in this i^tate, he received the benefits of good private 
schools, and was also favored with the superior educational advantages of Howard Col- 
lege, at Marion, and of the Univer.sity of Kentucky. Upon leaving the university, he 
became a student in the law office of Pettus & Dawson, of Selma, and in June, 1871, 



362 Jeffe7-so?i County. 



was admitted to the practice, opening an otiice in Selma. In 1872 he became a partner 
witli John White — this association continuing until January, 1S74, when he became the 
junior partner of his old preceptors, under the firm name of Pettus, Dawson & Tillman. 
He continued this alliance until January, 1881, when, by mutual consent, the partner- 
ship was dissolved, and, in October of the same year, he became a partner of Joseph F. 
Johnston, continuing with Mr. Johnston until January 1, 1883, when he removed to 
Montgomery, and commenced reporting the decisions of the supreme court, in which 
position he acquired an extensive acquaintance with the legal profession of the State, 
and rendered efiicient service. 

To enter upon a larger professional field he adopted Birmingham as his home in 
October, 1884, and soon afterward the law firm of Webb & Tillman was formed, now 
one of the most active and able in Jefferson County. 

Mr. Tillman, while a resident of Selma, was a member of the city council, and for 
two terms served as city attorney. 

In 1885 he was appointed by Hon. R. C. Brickell as one of the two assistant com- 
missioners to codify the laws of the State, according to the act of the legislature of 
1884-85, and he labored assiduously and earnestly at this work until its completion in 
November, 1866. 

He is now in earnest and active practice in Birmingham. 

Mr. Tillman was united in marriage in January, 1876, with Miss Sallie B., daughter 
of II. H. Hurt, Esq., of Marion, Ala. 

Td n-TQC \tJ cxzi \hor\\T ^^^ °' Birmingham's most progressive young men, was 
danlLb W Ldlr|Ll l)^, born in Coweta County, Georgia, July 5, 1856. 

His father, Dr. J. S. Weatherly, was a native of Marlborough District, South Caro- 
lina His mother, nee Taliaferro, was a native Georgian, and, as the name signifies, 
was connected with one of the most noted families of that State. His parents came to 
Alabama and settled in Montgomery when he was about two years old. His father has 
maintained a standing for years in that city, both socially and professionally, as one of 
the leading citizens of this, one of the most cultured and refined communities in the 
South. It is very natural that the subject of this sketch should be possessed of many 
qualities which have ever distinguished him as tlie true gentleman, and have given 
him ready entree into the best classes of social life wherever he has lived. 

He went to school in Montgomery until he was fourteen years old, and then 
attended the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., one session. When he 
returned home he was engaged in commercial pursuits for several years and then taught 
in the public schools of that city four years. He entered the law department of the 
University of Alabama and maintained a standing as one of the brightest minds of the 
class. In June, 1879, he took the diploma as full graduate of the law school. On his 
return to Montgomery be had an oflice with Clopton, Herbert & Chambers, and gave 
special attention to familiarizing himself with the practice for a year, and then entered 
the arena of active practice with a preparation that few young men could claim. He 
practiced until November, 1882, and, becoming convinced that Birmingham held out 
unusual opportunities to the ambitious and deserving, he came here in that month, and 
has ever since devoted himself to the practice, and has risen as rapidly as those only 
do who succeed. He was a member of the law firm of Sharpe & Weatherly until the 
former's elevation to the city judgeship of the City Court of Birmingham. This firm 
were the local attorneys for St. Clair and Jefferson Counties of the Georgia Pacific 
Railroad. After the latter date Mr. Weatherly became a member of the firm of Weath- 
erly & Putman, and to the latter firm has succeeded, in a largely increased ratio, the 



Biographical. 363 



•practice which the former did. They have grown with the strength and growth of 
Birmingham, and are classed among its most reliable and successful firms. 

On December 23, 1885, Mr. Weatherly received the appointment of Assistant Gen- 
eral Counsel of the Georgia Pacific Railroad, and has filled it with that ability which 
has characterized his course ever since he became a member of his learned profession, 
and, what is of greater importance, has won the confidence and esteem of the officers 
of this corporation. 

Mr. Weatherly was married December 23, 1882, to Miss Florence, daughter of Col. 
John T. Milner, of New Castle, Ala. The name of Milner is too well identified with 
the marvelous development and growth of Alabama to need special introduction liere. 
To this union two children have been born. 

Mr. and Mrs. Weatherly are both members of the Episcopal Church. 

Their handsome home on the South Highlands is one of the happiest and most 
pleasant in Birmingham. 

rnih/ohc>ll OlKjirhn Dnrhor was born at Elyton, Jefferson Countv, Alabama, 
\\\\\^\)^\\ jniDUILU yKJlK^K August 17, 1859, and is another of" the young 
men who has seen a transformation take place around him, as if by magic. He has seen 
developed, from a few struggling habitations, the splendid young city of Birmingham, 
almost under the eaves of his own home, and now almost on the point of ab.sorbing his 
native village in its great growth. His father, the Hon. M. T. Porter, is now judge of 
probate court, and for full accounts of his ancestral history see the latter's sketch in 
this volume. 

Young Porter received his early education at the old field schools, in his native vil- 
lage, and went to no other until he attended the public schools of Birmingham in 1876 
and 1877. Prof. S. L. Robertson, a well known educator in Jeflerson County for many 
years, was then superintendent of schools. 

In 1881 he attended the law department of the University of Alabama, and, on his 
return to Birmingham, engaged in the practice of law with his father, the Hon. M. T. 
Porter, under the firm name of Porter & Porter. This copartnership lasted until the fall 
of 1884, when his father was appointed Probate Judge of Jeflerson County. He then 
bacame associated with Messrs. Hewitt & Walker, under the firm name of Hewitt, 
Walker & Porter. The firm stands in the very first rank, and does, perhaps, the most 
lucrative practice at the Birmingham bar. Few of our younger lawyers have as bright 
and inviting a future as Mr. Porter. 

He was married December 21, 1886, to Miss Hattie Ear le, of Tyler, Texas, and both 
are members of the Episcopal Church. 

■ID n PvP't'r-rirm "•is born in Sumter County. Alabama, near Livings- 
(gjO^I^ (§)• iSrVn maa ton, the county seat, August 17, ISSl. 

This county is one of the wealthiest in the State. Its people are among the most 
cultured and refined in the Southern country. His surroundings were all highly favor- 
able. He was born on the farm and spent his early life as all farmers' boys do— that is, 
sometimes between the plow handles, or at other rural occupations, and then in the 
various ways known only to the inventive boy, in a multiplicity of diversions. 

His father, John W. Altman, came from South Carolina, and settled in Sumter 
County in 1836, and was afterward married to his mother, Miss Sarah Hitt, who came 
from North Carolina at an early date. 

Young Altman's educational advantages were good, and that he made the proper 
use of them his future career has given abundant proof. He obtained the rudiments 



^ 



364 Jefferson Coiaify. 



of an education at the country schools in his own neighborhood. At the age of sixteen 
he is found engaged in teaching in his native county, with the laudable purpose of 
gaining money with which further to enable him to prosecute his studies. After accu- 
mulating sufficient money he went to Cooper's In.stitute, in East Mississippi. It was, 
at that time, and still is a noted school, and especially characteristic for the thorough 
training it gives all of its pupils. After an attendance here of some months he took a 
course of law lectures at the University of Virginia. It may also be stated to his credit 
that he was enabled to take these lectures with money he made while teaching. 

After his return, in 1871, from Virginia, he opened a law office in Butler, Ala- 
bama, the county seat of Choctaw County. He was then twenty years old. He was 
associated in the practice with Chancellor Cobbs, now Chancellor of the Western Chan- 
cery Division of Alabama. After practicing with success there for four years he came 
to Birmingham, and was a partner of Captain Sprott until 1883, when the latter was 
made Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Alabama. He was Mayor of Livingston 
seven years. lie was Democratic Elector from the Sixth Congressional District in 1SS4, 
when Cleveland was elected President. From the beginning he has had a gratifying 
experience as a lawyer in Birmingham. He is a thorough believer in the bright promise 
of the town. 

C\ YS^ oTfiP'f'on "''^ born in Greene County, Alabama, January 30, 1839. 

* ^' t His father, William F. Fulton, came from Maury County, 

Tennessee, and settled in this State in 1819. His mother, Elizabeth Dial, was a native of 
the same county. When he was two years old his parents moved to Sumter County, 
Alabama, where his mother died when he was in his third year. His father died Octo- 
ber 4, 1886, at the extreme age of eighty-six. Thete were eight children born to the 
parents, E. K. being next to the youngest. He went to school for some years in Sum- 
ter and Greene Counties, and then attended Oglethorpe University, Georgia, until his 
graduation in 1859. He taught school until the war came on, and was in the commis- 
sary department of the Confederate Army until the war closed. 

After the close of the war he farmed in Sumter County until 1873, and in that year 
came to Birmingham. Prior to this he had studied law under Charles Cook, one of the 
leading lawyers of Sumter, and when he arrived in Birmingham he at once began the 
practice of his profession, in which he has since been engaged. 

Mr. Fulton has been a successful dealer in real estate, and is interested in several 
corporations, the most important of these being the Clifton Land Company, which owns 
some beautifully located and valuable property beyond Red Mountain. 

Mr. Fulton was married the first time November 23, 1863, to Laura G. Montgomery, 
of Pleasant Ridge, Greene County, Alabama. To this union throe children were born — 
William IMilton, Laura Edwina, and Laura Montgomery. 

He was married the second time to Miss Nena Montgomery, of Starkville, Missis- 
sippi, in May, 1876. 

Mr. Fulton is an Odd Fellow, and he and his family are all members of the Presby- 
terian Church. 



)no. 3* @)e.mix^ori 



father, William H. Jemison, was born in Georgia, and 
is now living in Birmingham, but lived in Tuscaloosa as one of the most successful and 
extensive planters for many years in the rich alluvial bottoms in Tuscaloosa County. 
His mother is a native Alabamian. His grandparents, on both sides, were Virginians. 
Young Jemison was particularly fortunate in his educational advantages, as his birth- 



Biographical. ,^65 



place was not only the seat of the State University, but also noted lor its many line 
schools, and the high degree of culture that its people attained. He took a select 
course in the collegiate department at the University of Alabama, and graduated in 
the class of 1S76. He acted as quartermaster of the University from the fall of 1876 to 
the close of June, 1879, and became commandant of the corps. In the meantime he 
devoted himself to the study of law, and graduated from the law department of the 
University in June of the latter year. He began the practice in Montgomery, Ala., in 
the following fall, and edited the Alabama Law Journal from 1881 to 1885 inclusive. 
He maintained his standing, both as a writer and lawyer, with credit during this 
period. 

On November 7, 1883, he was married to Miss Margie Allen, of Lafayette, Ala., 
and in January, 1884, went there to live, and practiced law until he came to Birming- 
ham, on September 1, 1886, and accepted the position of secretary and attorney of the 
Birmingham Land and Loan Company, which is one of the prosperous and most deserv- 
ing corporations in this truly progressive center. 

^Ir. Jemison has always been noted for his practical and business qualifications, 
and to these are due the comfortalde circumstances by which he finds himself sur- 
rounded. His domestic relations are felicitous. He is the father of two children, Eliz- 
abeth Virginia and Allen Bryce. 

He and his wife are both members of the Episcopal Church. 

/fJNft/'PP* M 0.„4--fi„^ was boru in Smith Countv, jMiss., June IG, 

©yifl^iaa) n. it^emea ^,5- j,un B. Bethea, his kher, a lieutenant 
in the Confederate Army, was killed at the siege of Vicksburg. 

His mother, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Bethea, like his father, was a native of South Caro- 
lina, and both were descendants of the French Huguenots, and moved to the State of 
his birth shortly after their marriage. On the death of his father she returned to South 
Carolina. There were six chil<lren in the family, of whom four are living, and all in 
Birmingham. 

William lived in Marion County, South Carolina, until he was nineteen years old, 
and| obtained a considerable part of his literary education in the academies of that 
county, and spent two and one half years in the collegiate department of the Vander- 
bilt University, in Nashville, Tenn. He then came to Talladega, Ala., where he taught 
school for six years, and in his leisure studied law. In 188-1 he was admitted to the 
bar, and on the 9th of August of that year came to Birmingham, where he has .since 
practiced with great success. Among the trials in which he has won especial notice 
was the Ellis trial. In this his client, Ellis, was held to answer for murder, and he 
was successful in his defense. His associate in this trial was B. H, Tabor, now a 
prominent citizen of Arkansas. 

Jlr. Bethea has made considerable money in real estate transactions. He is asso- 
ciated in the practice with Mr. Charles A. Senn. This is .one of the able young firms 
of Birmingham. 

(T^'Rni'pDA P^ ^onn "'^® born in Edgefield, now Aiken County, South 
V«)riariex9 erV. ^eni^ Carolina, November 17, ISoS. His father, Thomas 
J. Senn, and his mother, Nancy E. Marohant, were both natives of South Carolina. 
Young Senn went to the common schools of his native county until he completed 
his preliminary course, and then entered Furman University, of which Dr. James C. 
Furman, a noted educator, was president. He left there in his senior year, without 
completing his course, to take the office of commissioner of schools of his native county. 



366 Jefferson County. 



He held the position for two years, and discharged the duties of it with signal suc- 
■cess and considerable ability. He had, in the meantime, read law in the otiice of 
Major W. T. Gary, one of the most distinguished lawyers in Soutli Carolina, and now 
one of the ablest at the Augusta bar, in Georgia. At the end of the two years that he 
was commissioner of public schools, he entered the law department of Georgetown 
University, in the District of Columbia, and graduated as the first-honor man of his 
class in June, 1883, and received the'faculty prize accorded to all those achieving this 
distinction. Immediately after his graduation, he traveled extensively in the West, 
on a prospecting tour, with the intention of locating, but, as he saw no places that 
suited him, he came to Birmingham, and arrived here on January 9, 1884, and since 
then has confined himself to the practice of his profession. He is recognized as one of 
the leading younger members of the bar of this cit)'. As a gentleman and a lawyer 
he po.ssesses many of those qualities that make the successful man of the world, and 
being yet a very young man he has a bright future ahead of him, if one is permitted 
to base a prediction on the indications of the present. 

Mr. Senn was appointed Register in Chancer)- on November 2, 1886, and fills the 
position with great satisfaction to the members of his profession. 

(iamex«> Moaroe P(^x^efF :r%^°:';i,V h'Th^TY' fS'"^^^^ 

vs March 3, 18.31. His father, Robert Russell, 

came to Alabama from the State of Georgia, in 1832, with his father, Hiram Russell, 
-who settled in the old Carrollton neighborhood. The latter died only a few years ago, 
at the extreme age of eighty-six. His mother's maiden name was Martha Dardon, who 
was a native of Tuscaloosa County. There were eleven children in the family, six 
of whom were boys and five girls. Kine of this number are now living 

James worked on his father's farm, and, when he was nine years old, commenced 
going to school. His educational opportunities were very meager, and his whgle school 
life can be summed up in about nine months. The first work he ever did for himself 
was to assist in clearing ofl" the right-of-way of the South and North Division of the 
Louisville & Nashville Railroad, between Village and Five-Mile Creeks, and the Alabama 
• Great Southern Railroad and Hillman, at one dollar per day. Immediately after this he 
went to Union County, Mississippi, where he spent three years, and returned to Jefferson 
"County in April, 1874, and, after teaching school for three months, engaged in farming 
north of Birmingham, and read law at spare times. In October, 1876, he came to Bir- 
mingham, and read law in the office of Porter & Martin, and in January, 1877, entered 
the law department of the University of Alabama, and remained there until May 25 
of that year, when he was admitted to the bar in Jefferson County, before Judge W. S. 
Mudd. He began the practice under very discouraging circumstances, and borrowed 
twenty dollars from Colonel Alburto Martin with which to supply his family with food, 
and was, besides, considerably in debt. Since June, 1877, he has been actively engaged 
in practicing law in Birmingham. His real estate transactions have been pecuniarily 
successful, and the valuation of his city property will amount to nearly $100,000. 
Besides this, he owns sevenil thousand dollars wortli of property a short distance from 
the city. 

Mr. Russell, among other good things, contributed almost the entire amount to 
build the Second Baptist Church, of Birmingham, and has been a member of the Bap- 
tist Church ever since he was thirteen years of age. 

He was married November 10, 1874, to Sarah Isabella EUard, daughter of W. W. 
EUard. They have five children — Augusta, John Martin, Isabella, Annie, deceased, and 
James M. Mrs. Russell, like her husband, belongs to the Baptist Church. 





m ^M • y^t^x^ 



Biographical. 369 

0«,^;^ Otx,^ @ '.\'&. was born in Randolph County, Alabama, in 1852. 

i©)a^^lSL i®)l^Ot2 ^miHn He is the eWest son of ex-Oovemor WilUam H. 
Smith, Sr., with whom he is associated in the practice of law. A part of his education 
was obtained in common schools, partly in Chattanooga, Tenn., and at the University of 
Alabama. 

His acquirement of the profession of law was obtained in his father's law office. 
He was admitted to the bar at Montgomery, Alabama, before the supreme court, in 
1874. Mr. Smith possesses a high order of legal mind, and, since his practice at the 
bar, he has been uniformly successful. He has attracted the closest attention in all the 
courts where his forensic abilities were called in play. He has drawn the unusual 
assertion for one so young, from one of the ablest supreme judges the State has ever 
had, of " making one of the closest arguments ever listened to in all of his experience 
before that tribunal." Mr. Smith's manner as a speaker is close, cogent, logical, and 
easy. He possesses the rare faculty of never becoming frustrated, even under the most 
trying circumstances, a quality the possession of which is far from ordinary, and which 
goes a great ways in securing the ear of both the judge and jury, and in insuring suc- 
cess to the cause of his clients. These tangible qualities in any speaker are exceed- 
ingly fortunate, and cannot but weigh with great force before any body. Mr. Smith has. 
paid little or no attention to politics, preferring to remain in his chosen field, and reap 
the rewards that lie in store for him, and, from what has just been said, there can be no- 
question of his attaining to a high rank, even among the foremostat the bar. His man- 
ner as a gentleman is quiet, affable, and unpretentious, and to none is he more welcome 
than his nearest friends, who know his worth best. 

O r\^of''C ^ Isinri^o ^^® '-"^"^ '" Huntsville, Ala., in the month of January,. 
J'^O'-'®"' (§)• l-'0'-i-'& ^gg^ ,j,|jg gjtyof his birth has been noted for many 
years as being the seat of the highest culture, and as being justly celebrated for its 
beauty, being usually styled the Queen City of the South. 

With such surroundings, and at such a place, up to the time of attaining his major- 
ity, were most of the years of the subject of this sketch spent. That they had the efiect of 
symmetrically molding his mind and character is quite natural. His family was one of 
the highest stiuiding, and his ancestry such that he can look upon it as a proud heritage. 
His father, Robert J. Lowe, Sr., held a high position at the bar of North Alabama for 
many years. 

In the fall of 1876 he entered the University of the State at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and, 
after finishing the collegiate course, entered the law department of the same institution, 
from which he graduated in June, 1881. He first began the practice of law in Birming- 
ham, in that year, and continued to practice alone until 1884, when he associated him- 
self with ex-Governor William H. Smith, Sr., and David D. Smith, his son, under the 
firm name of Smith & Lowe. This firm is one of the leading ones of North Alabama, 
and transacts a large business. 

Mr. Lowe, for one of his years, has taken a most enviable stand as a lawyer, and 
has won for himself already the respect and confidence of older members of his pro- 
fession as being a shrewd thinker, and ready debater in pleading the cause of his clients. 
That success has attended his efforts is the best test of his ability. 

Mr. Lowe has barely passed the line that divides youth from manhood, and has 
achieved that position in his profession which would be a just tribute to those far in 
advance of his years. 



Jefferson Comity. 

J\rcftl6aFil Si,ruce ^c^o^n^^^j:^'^^^'-^ 

fatliLT, Peter McEachin, and his mother, Maria JIcQueen, were also natives of North 
Carolina. His paternal grandfather and grandmother and maternal grandfather and 
grandmother all came across the Atlantic, from the Isle of Skye, Scotland. He had an 
uncle. General McQueen, of South Carolina, who at one time owned a genealogical chart 
showing direct descent from the brave and noble Bruce family of Scotland. 

From his early boyhood he clerked in his father's store, when not going to school, 
and, as soon as he was large enough, kept books for his father. After completing his 
literary course, he became city editor of the Argus, at Fayetteville, N. C, and filled this 
position two years. He then attended Judge Pearson's law school, at Eockford, N. C, 
two years. Judge Pearson was then chief justice of the State, and one of the ablest 
jurists of his time. 

Captain McEachin began the practice of law at Carthage, N. C, and, in 1859, went 
to Marion, Perry County, Ala. He was sub-elector in the Bell and Everett campaign, 
and edited the Marion American through that momentous era. 

In January, 1861, he was married to Miss Dora Somerville, of Tuscaloosa, a sister 
of Judge Somerville, associate justice of this State. He was captain in the Seventh 
Alabama Cavalry at the beginning of the war. In 1863 he was made post quartermaster 
at Savannah, Ga., and remained there until the capture of that city by General Sher- 
man. 

A ftor the war he was a partner of Judge Somerville, in Tuscaloosa, until the latter was 
made associate justice. During the years 1SU5, 1867, 1868, and 1869, he edited the South- 
ern Law Journal, published at Tuscaloosa. He has been a popular newspaper corres- 
pondent, and has contributed to various leading periodicals, both in the North and 
South for twenty years. 

Captain McEachin's married life has been one of great happiness. He has six 
children, all of whom are living — James Somerville, a rising young lawyer of Bir- 
mingham, and claim agent of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad ; Helen Wallace, 
now Mrs. William F. Fitts, of Tuscaloosa ; Mabelle, Dora McQueen, Nannie, and Archi- 
bald Bruce, Jr. 

Captain McEachin opened a law office in Birmingham, in 1886, with Captain Mar- 
tin, then member of Congress from the Sixth Alabama District. His practice here is 
rapidly increasing, and he already stands among the foremost of this bar. 

(c{ W Mf-^f I r>'t'in\/ ^'''^ ^'°'" '" Richmond, Va., in 1S55. His father was 
VO. orV. 1 lOUQlJOX/ -wiuiain A. Mountjoy, of Irish extraction, and his 
mother, Mina Arnold, as the name indicates, was English. The name of Jlountjoy is 
one of the oldest in Virginia, running back even to very early times. The grandfathers 
on both the paternal and maternal side were active participants in the war of 1812, 
wliicli terminated so gloriously for the American arms. His father died when only 
thirty years old, thus depriving the subject of this sketch of the advantage which 
accrues to every boy through a kind and watchful parent's care. 

Young Mountjoy was reared and educated principally in King George County, Vir- 
ginia, and, after obtaining a sufficient degree of proficiency, attended the renowned 
University of Virginia, at which institution he graduated with distinction in 1876; and 
then taught for one year in the Wesleyan Female Institute, at Staunton, Virginia. 

In 1878 he came to Alabama, and resumed teaching in Morgan County, and was 
the principal of the high school at Danville. After one year's teaching here he went 
to Montgomery, the capital of the State, and was, for two years, principal of a flourish- 



Biogi -aph ical. 3 7 1 



ing high school there. He had been a student of law in the lueantime, and attended 
summer lectures at the University of Virginia. 

He continued to live in Montgomery until 1881, and then came to Birmingham 
early in that year, and began the practice of law, and from the beginning bad a liberal 
practice. It has steadily increased, until now it is lucrative. This is due to the untiring 
devotion and close attention he has given his profession. In 1883 he associated himself 
with John M. Tomhnson, under the firm name of Mountjoy & Tomlinson. This 
copartnership has proven an exceedingly fortunate one, and has led to a large increase 
in the business transacted by the firm. 

Mr. Mountjoy, during the session of the legislature of 1886-87, was presented by 
Jefferson County for prosecuting attorney, in the circuit embracing Jefferson. For this 
position Mr. Rlountjoy received the hearty and undivided support of the bar in tlie city 
of Birmingham, but the incumbent was re-elected. 

He belongs to the Episcopal Church. 

There is no young man in Birmingham who has had a more successful career, or 
has brighter prospects, than Mr. Mountjoy. 

T^U^^TiT TTT /v nr. I ; »-. ^ « v^ is a native of Tennessee, and was born in Granger 
jQfinW.TGfnlinSOr] County, in 1857. 

His father was a native South Carolinian, but came to Tennessee when a young 
man, where he was married. He h;is merchandised for some years in Tennessee, and is 
the ow'ner and proprietor of Tate Springs, Tennessee, which is a most popular summer 
resort. 

Young Tomlinson had fine educational advantages, of which he availed himself 
with great assiduity. It was in 1882 that he graduated from the Law Department of 
the Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn., and at once began the practice of his 
profession in his native county, where he remained one year; and, in 1883, came to 
Birmingham, where he has since practiced the profession of law with great success. 

In the year 188-1 he became associated with C. A. Mountjoy, under the firm name 
of Mountjoy & Tomlinson. This firm, though consisting of young men, transacts a 
large and successful legal business, and is regarded by the profession as among the 
ablest of the young members of the profession. 

Mr. Tomlinson is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the Phi Delta Tau Fra- 
ternity, and having become a Royal Arch Mason is also a Knight Templar. 

Mr. Tomlinson has been favorably and honorably mentioned for political honors, 
but, preferring to devote himself to his profession with all his energies, declined them, 
and that the wisdom of his course has been rewarded with a great enlargement of his 
practice, and consequent financial success, is the gratifying achievement that could 
come fi'om no other source. Personally he is possessed of many characteristics and 
personal attributes, which constitute the successful man of affairs. 

QTW Plnf^OPTTnnfi was born in Louisville, Kentucky, May 6,1 862. His father, 
.LU.UllULl W UuU Eugene Underwood, was a Kentuckian, and practiced law 
many years, botli in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Louisville, Kentucky. He now re- 
sides on his father's old homestead, in Warren County, Kentucky, which he bought 
after his father's death. His mother, whose maiden name was Virginia F. Smith, was 
from Petersburg, Virginia, and is still living. 

Our subject spent all of his early years in Louisville, where he attended the famous 
Rugby School, until he entered the University of Virginia, and there took one year's 
collegiate course and two years in the law department, and graduated in the latter in 



37-2 Jeffei'son Coicniy. 



June, 1884. He at first went to St. Paul, Minnesota, with tlie intention of practicing 
law, but after a stiort stay there determined to go South, and in September, 1884, came 
to Birmingham, and since then has been exclusively engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession. Since coming here he has associated himself with Mr. James J. Garrett, one 
of Birmingham's ablest lawyers, under the firm name of Garrett & Underwood. This 
firm does a large practice, and ranks among the most successful at this bar. 

In 1885 Mr. Underwood was married to Miss Eugenia Massie, of Charlottesville, 
Virginia, and lives at the handsome residence of the former's brother, Mr. W. T. Under- 
wood, on the South Highlands. Mrs. Underwood is a member of the Episcopal Church. 

14° T-T C^i»^ciM^ ^''^^ born in Tuscaloosa County, near Tuscaloosa, 

GTlenrLJ on . J^rOO^n August 24, I837. HIs father, John Brown, came to 
this part of Alabama, in 1814, from Tennessee. His mother, Rachel Norris, was a native 
of the same county as her son. There were seven children in the family, three boys 
and four girls. They lived in that county about forty-eight years. 

Henry H. remained on the farm until he was grown. He obtained his education 
in the county schools. He clerked in his father's store in North Port, Alabama, until 
the war came on, and then joined the Alabama regiment, under the command of Colo- 
nel Hatch, afterward commanded by Colonel C. P. Ball, as commissary sergeant. He 
served throughout the rest of the war, and was captured, near Montgomery, by Wilson's 
Raiders. After the close of the war he merchandized in North Port up to 1875, and 
then farmed three years. In 1874 he was elected to the lower house of the General 
Assembly of Alabama, and was re-elected in 18715. In 1877 he was elected sheriff of his 
county, and served three years. In 1880-82-84 he was sent by the people to the gen- 
eral assembly. From 1877 to 1880 he studied law, and from the latter year to 188G was 
assistant solicitor of the county. From 1883 to the close of 1886 he was the editor of 
the Tuscaloosa Times. In all of these positions Mr. Brown was up to the full measure 
of the requirements of his duties, and won distinction as a legislator. He possesses 
personal qualities which attach him to his fellow men. To this fact much of his success 
is due. 

He was married, in 1859. to Miss Louise T. Cardwell, of Tuscaloosa County. She 
died in 1872. To this union seven children were born, James T., Jesse W., John H., 
Charles, Minnie E., Mattie A., and Annie, decea.sed. 

He was married the second time to Miss Jessie E. Freeman, of North Port. By his 
second marriage he has one daughter, Clare. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the 
Baptist Church. He is also a Mason, and is now Grand Senior Warden of the State ^ 
Grand Lodge. 

Mr. Brown came to Birmingham, in October, 1886, and opened a law office, and the 
character and number of his clients already give assurance that he will be successful in 
this progressive city. 

T-T M S?\ri'l^'l*\ ^^® '^''''° '" Winston County, Miss., February 18, 1853. 

GTiearLJ l l. ^ai_LA/ His father, Colonel Jesse Patty, was from south Caro- 
lina. His mother, Sarah G. Pettigrew, was an Alabamian by birth, but belonged to that 
family of Pettigrews so noted in Charleston, S. C. 

Henry passed the earlier years of his life on his father's farm, attending the home 
school, but at the age of fifteen went to the high school at Macon, Miss., and continued 
several sessions. He then read law under the Hon. H. L. Jarnagin, an eminent lawyer 
in his State, and graduated subsequently from the law department of Cumberland Uni- 
versity, and, in the latter part of 1876, went toSherman, Texas, and practiced there for 



Biographical. 373 



ten years with great success. His tirst partnership was with E. E. Smith, and his sec- 
ond with Hon. W. W. Wilkins, who was a member of General Hardee's staff during 
the war. This last firm was recognized as the best in Sherman. Mr. Patty there stood 
higli in society and in his profession. 

He came to Birmingham in October, 18SG. He had left home to select some suit- 
able location further east, and the young and vigorous city filled his ideal of a desirable- 
place in which to live. He is engaged in the practice of his profession here, and the 
future years will show that he was not unwise in the choice of a location. 

He was married June 2, ISSl, to Miss Emmie, daughter of Hon. H. W. Foote, of 
Macon, Miss. This has been a very happy union. He has one child, Annie Kate. 

~\r)^r\ Q ^\LrnrirrP ^^-^s born November 26, 1850, in St. Clair County, 
^Orui JQ;. ^l_ru.r;^ti ^^1^1,3^^,, His father, Hubbard H. Strange, came 
from South Carolina in 1827. His mother, Margaret Byers, came from the same State. 
His father has always been a farmer, and is still living. His mother died in 1885. He- 
worked on the farm until he was twenty-one years old. He then went to school at. 
Springville Academy, in his native county. He then taught school, and bore the 
expenses of his education. He read law at Asheville, the county seat of St. Clair- 
County, under Hon. John W. Inzer, for eight months, when he was admitted to the 
bar, and practiced there only a short time. He then came to Birmingham, on Novem- 
ber 9, 1876, and has been in the active and successful practice of his profession ever 
since. He has been successful in real estate transactions, and, with these and his prac- 
tice, has placed himself in the most comfortable circumstances. He has achieved 
everything by his individual efforts, and has much to promise himself for the future. 
He is a member of the M. E. Church. South. 

ijtepften 2. 5i)ar-6lJ, ;^ttorney at law, although a resident in Birmlng- 
^ I ©) J' ham for a few months, is entitled to notice, as 

among its influential citizens. He was born in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, August 22,. 
1852, his parents being natives of Georgia, subsequently removed to Alabama, where they 
followed planting and farming. 

The earlier years of Mr. Darby were passed on the farm, and in attending the pri- 
vate schools of the neighborhood, and subsequently, for two years, in Stewart County, 
Georgia. For two years later he was employed as a traveling salesman in Texas. 
Returning to Alabama, he entered the law oflSce of Suttle & Kyle, of Wetumpka, where- 
_ he prepared himself for the legal profession, and, in June, 1874, he was admitted to the 
bar, commencing his practice at Eockford, Coosa County. He was admitted to the 
supreme court in January, 1876, and continued in general practice, in which he was 
very successful, until November 15, 1880, when he was elected Solicitor of the Fiftk 
Judicial District, and served efficiently for a period of six years, declining re-election. 
Mr. Darby has taken an active part in political affairs, and has been a delegate to every 
Democratic State Convention held since he became nineteen years of age. In 1886 he 
was a candidate for the nomination for Congress in the Fifth District, and was defeated 
by only three-fourths of one vote. 

He came to Birmingham in November, 1886, and soon after became interested in 
real estate, in connection with his father-in-law, Mr. J. C. Westbrook, and, in this import- 
ant field, has also scored a success that is highly gratifying to himself. As a lawyer, 
Mr. Darby stands an.ong the leaders in the younger ranks, and as a citizen is an 
esteemed addition to the society of the city. He is Secretary of the Birmingham Agri- 
cultural Works, a director of the West Valley Street Eailroad, and attorney for both. 
21 



;74 Jefferson Cotitity. 



corporations. lie is a member of tlie Knights of the Golden Rule and is a Royal Arch 
Mason. 

Mr. and Mrs. Darby have two children— Stephen J., Jr., and Rosalie W. The 
family worshii) with the I\I. E. Church, South. 

(G\l\f'99' \®) P was born in Limestone County, Alabama, December 

kjyV Itliam yau.gl2^7 1,5, I859. HIs father, WilUam p. Vaughan, was a 
native of Mecklenberg County, Virginia, but, when a young man, came to Limestone 
County, and farmed there until his death in 1869. His mother's maiden name was 
Amanda O. Davis, who was an Alabamian. Her father, the Hon. Nathaniel Davis, was, 
for many years, prominent in the local politics of North Alabama, and always affiliated 
with the Democrats, by whom he was sent to the State Legislature a number of terms. 
When a mere boy, the subject of this sketch commenced clerking in a store in Madison, 
and then went to Decatur, Alabama, the time being spent at both places being nearly 
two years. He received his education in the common schools of Madison County, but 
left them to commence work as above stated. 

After leaving Decatur, he went with his mother to Huntsville, Alabama, and clerked 
for a short time in the oflBce of Circuit Clerk, and then entered the law office of Walker 
& Shelby, the former of whom was the .attorney General of the Confederate States Gov- 
ernment, and one of the ablest and most brilliant lawyers at the Southern bar. In this 
office, young Vaughan applied himself assiduously, and at the age of nineteen was 
admitted to the bar, before Chancellor Speake, at Huntsville, and subsequently before 
the Supreme Court of the State. After two years practice in Huntsville, with R. H. 
Lowe, he was appointed chief Clerk of the Probate Court of Madison County, and held 
the position, and practiced his profession for four years. In January, 1887, Mr. 
Vaughan came to Birmingham, and at once secured a lucrative practice. It is needless 
to predict that one of his energy and perseverance will lead a successful career in Bir- 
mingham. Before leaving Huntsville his name was favorably mentioned for the Pro- 
bate Judgeship of Madison County. 

Mr. Vaughan was married July 23, 188(5, to Miss Bessie, the beautiful and accom- 
plished daughter of Professor J. D. Anderson, principal of the Huntsville Female 
Seminary. 

Mr. Vaughan is a member of the' Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the 
Knights of Pythias, and has been a delegate to the State Grand Lodge of the latter 
organization. 

Mrs. Vaughan is a member of the I'resbyterian Church. 

bar, was born July, 1856, and is a native of Jefferson County. Mr. Gillespie was edu- 
cated in the Southern University, at Greensboro, Alabama, and remained on the farm 
until 2U years old. He then engaged in business for a short time with Chambers 
McAdory, after which he began the study of law with R. A. McAdory, and began prac- 
tice in 1881, the firm being McAdory & Gillespie. Mr. E. J. Smyer was admitted to the 
firm in 1886. 

Mr. Gillespie was married to Miss Mortie Jordan, of Jonesboro, Alabama, in 1885. 
He is a member of the M. E. Church, South, ami a Knight of Pythias. 



Biographical. 375 



VS^eOrge WyveilJ ^S^tjier August 1, I859. very soon after his birth he 
■went witli his parents to a [mint near Cleveland, Ohio, now a part of that city. He 
received his education principally at Pittsford, Vermont, and Oberlin, Ohio, and read 
law for some time at the latter place, but took his degree from the Cincinnati Law 
School, and was admitted to the Ohio bar. For three years previous to this, he was in 
Orange County, Floriila, and during a portion of that time was deputy clerk of the 
county. On the 1st of October, 1S86, he came to Birmingham, and since his arrival has 
received the appointment of notary public ; has dealt in real estate, to which he gives 
much of his attention. Mr. George D. Clayton, of Hannibal, Mo., is associated with 
him in the latter business, under the firm name of Tyler & Clayton. Both of these gen- 
tlemen have come with the intention of remaining permanently. 

M r\ t» A^ n PP "l (^ K>o rrrr ^^"'^ ^°™ '^''^''^ Greeneville, Greene County, Tenn., 
I larxanail ^. V^i^regg January 10, I857. His father was a farmer, and 
largely engaged in stock raising. As soon as he arrived at a sufficient age, he assisted 
his father in various kinds of work about the farm. He first went to school near his 
home. After mastering sufficiently well the rudiments of an education, he took a regular 
collegiate course at Greeneville and Tusculum Colleges, in Greeneville, and completed 
the prescribed course in June, 1877 In the following fall he entered Emory and Henry 
College, one of the highest standard and best known institutions of Virginia, and grad- 
uated, from this college, in the summer of 1879. After leaving school he traveled, one 
year, for J. Linley & Son, pioprietors of a large nursery in Greensboro, N. C. 

In 1880 he came to Birmingham, and decided to establish himself as well as to 
study law. He entered the law office of Mr. R. H. Pearson, one of the leading law- 
yers at the Birmingham bar, and after two years faithful and diligent study, was admit- 
ted to the bar, and since 1882 lias been in active practice. Before his admission he had 
dealt in real estate, and had been very successful. As much may be said of his prac- 
tice as a lawyer. He has won his way, step by step, and is recognized as one of the 
rising young members of his profession. Among others of his clientage may be men- 
tioned one of the liiost successful land companies in Birmingham. 

Mr. Gregg's mother, whose maiden name was Alpha Shields, died February 14, 
1886, and his father, .Marshall W. Gregg, is still living in Tennessee, and is now at the 
advanced age of eighty-three years. 

Mr. Gregg was married March 4, 1884, to Miss Ely, daughter of Mark T. and 
Hannah E. Ely, of Dayton, Ohio. He is the father of one child, a daughter, Luetta 
Alpha. 

pp 1^ (&,r\ mY->'Rof P '** ^ native of Virginia, and was born in Abingdon, in 
Cf . 4 V • V^amp Oei l ^g^g ^j^ father, James 0. Campbell, and his mother, 
Ellen A. Kernan, were botli Virginians, and, as the name indicates, the former was 
Scotch, and tlie latter Irish. His grandparents were early settlers of Virginia. His 
ancestors were in the Revolutionary war, and he belongs to the same stock as Governor 
David Campbell and Judge John A. Campbell, of Virginia. 

After receiving an academic training, the subject of this sketch took a course of 
law lectures at the University of Virginia. He also studied with Daniel Trigg, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1883, and, after practicing in his native town for a few months, 
he came to Birmingham, in the spring of 1884, and has practiced alone ever since. 

Mr. Campbell's father is at present a resident of East Tennessee. 

Mr. Campbell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 



;76 Jejfersoii Coimty. 



Q> a'P M P KPPo 1-1 is <"v native of Caroline County, Virginia, where 

>g)axSll 1 I aril e^ oAUer^ he wasbominlSoS, andisasonof Rev. Little- 
bnry W. and Mary (Martin) Allen. The Allen family came from England to America 
early in the eighteenth century, and located in Eastern Virginia. His paternal grand- 
father was a Baptist minister, as was also his son, the father of our subject He was 
one of the founders of Richmond College, and one of the board of directors. Upon 
the breaking out of the war, he was pastor of the Walnut Street Baptist Church, of I-ouis- 
ville. Resigning his pastorate he returned to Virginia, and raised a regiment, of which 
he was elected colonel — passing through the entire period of hostilities, and a witness 
of the surrender at Appomattox. He is said to have resembled, to a marked degree, 
the late eminent Confederate leader, General Robert E. Lee. He died in 1872, at which 
peri d he was the pastor of four churches. The mother of our subject died in 1S65. 
She was also of English descent, and her ancestors early settlers in the colony of 
Virginia. Two of her brothers were graduates of William and Mary College, and each 
attained distinction. One served several terms in the Virginia Legislature, and was 
a member of the first constitutional convention of Virginia after the war, and the 
other was a member, for a number of years, of the lower house in Maryland. John 
Allen, a younger brother of his father, was prominent in the judiciary of Kentucky. 
Our subject was the tliird of four children, and was well educated. He was grad- 
uated at the age of seventeen, from the Agricultural College of Virginia, with the high- 
est grade of his class. Soon after he commenced the study of law in the office of E. 
C. Moncure, now judge of the county court at Bowling Green, Va. Two years later 
he came to South Alabama, and subsequently to Greensboro, where he continued read- 
ing, in the law office of Thomas R. Roulhac. In 1880 he was admitted to the Yale 
County bar, commencing the practice there in 1881, soon after being elected a membLT 
of the commissioners' court, and also a justice of the peace. 

In January, 1882, he removed to Birmingham, where he has established a most suc- 
ces.sful and lucrative practice. Mr. Allen was appointed a justice of the peace in March, 
1882, and elected for a term of four years in 1884. In his justice court he does practi- 
cally almost the entire business of the city. 

Mr. Allen is one of the hardest workers, in his profession, in the city, and is per- 
sonally very popular with all classes He is probably acquainted with more of the 
citizens of the " Magic City " than any other man. 

He has invested the proceeds of his practice in real estate in and around the city, 
and has, thereby, made a handsome fortune, which is judiciously invested. 

Mr. Allen takes a prominent part in the political actions of this section, and is the 
present secretary of the Democratic executive committee. 

He is Chancellor Commander of Phoenix Lodge, No. 25, Knights of Pythias. 

T-T In (G^A/zrl'Pinrrt'on was born in London, England, August 27, 1845. 
en . liy . >^ Y '^ ^ ^^ ' "^^ *-" 7 A large portion of his boyhood was spent in that 
city, where he attended its private schools, and also those in Essex County, antl at the 
age of fifteen became a student at the famous Eton School, where he remained three 
years. Owing to the death of his mother he was placed under the care of an uncle, 
who was an officer in the English navy. He went with him, having the purpose in 
view to prepare himself to become an officer in the royal navy. In 1865 he sailed on 
a long cruise with his uncle, and in the homeward journey left the navy at Quebec, 
and came at once to America. He stayed in the North one year, and in the spring of 
1866 came to Greeneville, Ala., and merthandised there one and a half years. In 
1871 he came to Birmingham, and commenced the study of law, and in 1872 was admit- 



Biographical. 377 



ted to practice that profession before Judge W. S. Mudd, and in 1875, after going to 
Cullman, Alabama, was admitted to practice in the State and United States Supreme 
Courts. In 1873 he went tojCullman, and was the first representative from the new 
county of Cullman to the legislature in the session of 1882-83, and mayor of the town 
two consecutive terms, and also editor of the Cullman Progress from July, 1884, up to 
the time of coming to Birmingham, in November, 1886. On the latter date he began 
the practice again in Birmingham, and since coming has sold out the asphalt beds and 
contiguous lands, located in Morgan County, Ala , and taken a prominent part in the 
organization of the Alabama Asphalt and Mining Company, representing the company 
as their attorney. 

Mr. Watlington was married, in February, 1870, to Miss Dora Brookg^^of Greene- 
ville, Ala., by whom he has two children, Eugene, engaged in business in Birmingham, 
and Pearl. 

Mr. Watlington is a Mason, and belongs to the Baptist Church. 

A son, Willie, by a previous marriage, is publisher of the Mineral Age, at Warrior, 
Ala. 

Mr. Watlington has succeeded in building up a good practice in North Alabama, and 
is now making a fine reputation as a lawyer in our city, with the fortunes of which 
he is fully identified. Birmingham has no better advocate and friend than in him. 

la mOC D ^hi loR ^'"'^ born in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, April 27, 1860, near 
Jd/ll(^^ y, ®lll(^& Starksville. His father, J. E. Stiles, had come to Mississippi, 
from Tennessee, when only twenty-five years old, and ever since has lived at his 
present home. His mother, Mary E. Edmonds, came from Virginia with her mother 
many years ago to the same part of Mississippi, and was married about one year 
after coming. 

Young Stiles spent his early life on the farm, and was a regular field hand for six 
years, and in plantation parlance "could weed his row " with the most dexterous dar- 
key on the farm. He first went to school at Choctaw Agency, near his home, and after 
some further training elsewhere, he became a student at the Southwestern Baptist Uni- 
versity, at Jackson, Tenn., and stayed there four and one half years, and took a law 
course at the University of Mississippi, graduating at Oxford in the summer of 
1881. In April, 1882, he came to Birmingham, and has been in the practice of his 
profession ever since. He was elected justice of the peace in August, 1884, and dis- 
charged the duties of the office until February, 1887, and since then has been appointed 
notary public, and now gives more especial attention to his practice. Mr. Stiles' suc- 
cess has not been confined to his profession. His real estate transactions have been 
very lucrative, and he has thoroughly established himself as one of the active and sub- 
stantial young men of this city. 

On November 3, 1886, he was married to Miss Mary C., daughter of Judge M. T. 
Porter, of Birmingham. 

Mr. Stiles is a member of the Baptist Church, and Mrs. Stiles of the Episcopal 
Church. 



378 Jefferson County. 



(Il|e ]12f*<Va^ Pvo^e£j-('of^, 



C^^nnroP Ci^n\=)iA ^^^ born in Pendleton District, Sontli Carolina, AFay 1, 
JO^ai^iei JS^aVl^ ^^gg ^^ came to Alabama in the year 1818, and located 
in Tuscaloosa in the year 1821. He was married to Miss Lanie Brownlee, of Abbe- 
ville District, South Carolina. She was a woman of fine education, of lovable 
disposition, and graceful manners. Dr. Davis received his education in ."^outli Carolina. 
He was wealthy, and casting his lot in the undeveloped regions of Alabama practiced 
his profession only when no other medical aid could be secured for the people. He was 
tall, erect, portly and handsome; with manners bland, winning, and gentle, and a heart 
overflowing with sympathy for every one. Miss Mary Gordon I'ufi'ee says he had " a 
face of massive strength and regular features, framed in silver locks, a voice kind and 
lovable as a father, an air of intense appreciation and considerate regard for all who 
came near and felt his presence. Of good descent by blood and birth, he was, by his 
energy and tact, the architect of his own fortune. Karly in life he met and won his 
equal — for a statelier, nobler woman than Mrs. Davis I never knew — and they settled 
down in the contentment of a beautiful life. They were blessed with eleven children, 
seven sons and four daughters." An elder daughter, Bettie Davis, married Colonel 
George W. Marshall, a descendant of a Virginia family and second cousin to Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall. Edward Davis became, in Montevallo and Sehua, the head of the 
wealthiest mercantile firm in Central Alabama. John M. Davis, considered, " in his 
prime," the finest-looking man in the State, was well known in business circles in 
Mobile and Selma. Ellas and Ralph Davis both became physicians. Two sons died in 
youth. One of the daughters, the younger, Louise, wedded a wealthy merchant of 
Eutaw, Alabama. "An elder sister, Amanda, with a face of rare, classic beauty, and 
a gentleness of manner and expression that won for her the title of ' The Madonna,' " 
was united to a Kentuckj' minister. Another daughter, Mary, married a physician of 
culture and wealth. Another son, \Vm. Davis, became a lawyer. 

Dr. Davis was a man of influence, and did a great deal in the development 
of this country. He was a type of the old school, and a true Southern gentleman, 
a lovable, congenial companion and parent, living to honor his (iod and assist his fel- 
low man. He died at his home in Jefferson County .July 12, 1869, at the age of seventy 
years. 

Tn<^PM^ I? ^Fflii'h ^^^ born February (5, 1818, in what is now Jefferson 
dUOLpri n. ^11|IU( county, Alabama, at that period known as Blount 
County, Mississippi Territory. 

His father, John Smith, was a native of the Union District, South Carolina, where 
his parents had settled upon emigrating from Wales. His mother's ancestors were Irish 
and her parents among the pioneers of Kentucky. Her maiden name was Sallie Riley, and 
her place of nativity Rockcastle County, Ky. They were married in Lincoln County, Ten- 
nessee, in 1814, and, soon after, learning of the beauty and rich soil of Jones Valley, 



Biographical. 2>79 



were induced to emigrate thither, and settled upon a large tract of land near Elj'ton, a 
portion of which is now owned by the Wheeling Furnace Company. They resided 
upon this land, within a half mile of their first location, until their deaths. 

His father pursued cotton planting upon a large scale, owning, prior to the war, 
about sixty slaves ; he was well and widely known, serving for many years as magis- 
trate and county commissioner, and, at the time of his death, in October, 1876, was the 
owner of 2,000 acres of land, which is now among the most valuable in Alabama. 

The mother of our subject departed this life in April, 1863. Ten children de- 
scended from them — David, now living near Crawfordsville, Mississippi ; Joseph R., 
our subject ; Wm. D., a resident of Jeft'erson County ; John B., Colonel of the Thirtieth 
Alabama Kegiment, was killed at Vicksburg ; Octavius S., who represented Jeft'erson 
County in the State Legislature one session, died in 18f-7 ; Thomas was admitted to the 
Jefferson County bar in 1852, served as Captain in the Confederate service, emigrated 
to Texas, and while Register in Chancery of Smith County, was accidentally killed ; 
George W., of Jeft'erson County ; Susan Weaver, living near Columbus, Mississippi ; 
Sarah J. Baird, who died in 1883 ; and Lucy. 

Joseph R. received the benefit of superior educational advantages for those early 
times — attending Union Seminary, in Tennessee. He entered the office of Dr. James 
Kelley, one of the early physicians of Jefferson County, irr 1838, and remained under 
his tutelage until the fall of 1839, when he entered the Medical Department of Transyl- 
vania University at Lexington, Kentucky, and after two years attendance graduated 
therefrom. 

He entered upon the practical duties of this noble profession in Jonesboro, where 
he continued for two years, and in 1843 became a resident of Elyton, where he has ever 
since resided. 

Dr. Smith abandoned the practice of medicine in 1870, and engaged very success- 
fully in the mercantile trade at Elyton until 1877, when the growing town of Birming- 
ham presented to him a more important field, and he removed his business interests to 
that point, and was interested in merchandising there until 1884. 

Dr. Smith has been the owner of large tracts of land for many years, and since 1884 
has devoted his entire attention to those interests. He is probably the largest individ- 
ual real estate owner in Jefferson County, and has been one of the foremost in build- 
ing up the business portion of Birmingham, owning at the present time some of the 
most substantial business blocks, besides considerable residence property. He is the 
founder of what is destined to become one of the most popular suburban towns, which 
is named in honor of its projector, Smithfield, a full sketch of which appears elsewhere 
in this work. He has a large interest still retained in this enterprise, and owns large 
tracts of mountain, iron, and coal lands in the country. 

Dr. Smith has accumulated a magnificent fortune, which is being rapidly added to 
by the remarkable increase in the value of real estate in this section, a large portion of 
which he has given to his children. 

Dr. Smith has never sought political preferment, but has earnestly devoted him- 
self to the prosecution of hi.s professional, mercantile, and real estate interests. 

Having resided in Jeft'erson County all his life, being the third white child bom, he 
has witnessed the early days of the State ; its development into one of the greatest of 
the cotton belt ; the birth of the Confederacy, and the ruin following ; the gradual 
growth and development of the iron, coal, and mineral wealth, until the future prom- 
ises to rank Alabama one of the greatest States in the Union. 

The first newspaper published in Jefferson County was started by Dr. Smith ia 



580 Jeffo'son Comity. 



association witli Baylis E. Grace, Sr., and was known as the Central Alabamian. This 
paper was continued by M. B. Lancaster until the close of the war. 

Dr. Smith, although having arrived at the period when the shadow of life is falling 
toward the east, is still active, energetic, and untiring in his devotion to his business 
interests, and, as he comes from a long-lived ancestry, will probably long live to enjoy 
the fruits which Providence has showered so bountifully upon him. 

He is a director of the Birmingham Insurance Company, also a stockholder in the 
First National Bank, a director of the Birmingham and Pratt Mines Street Railroad, 
and a member of the Masonic order. 

Dr. Smith's first wife was Miss Margaret, daughter of Mortimer Jordan, who was 
one of the early settlers of the county, settling in 1828, and following cotton planting 
upon a large scale, until his death, in 1866. They were united in January, 1844, and 
over thirty years of happy life passed, when, in 1 875, she departed this life. Twelve 
children were born to them, five of whom are now living : Joseph R., Jr., a progressive 
business man and prominent railroad contractor ; Thomas O., assistant cashier of the 
First National Bank ; Charles J., also a railroad contractor ; William D., and Virginia 
Irene. 

While a medical student at Lexington, Kentucky, Dr. Smith met a young lady, 
whose accomplishments and rare personal beauty deeply impressed him. Unable to 
return to Kentucky, he cherished through all the following years the memory of his 
youthful friendship. Years afterward, when a widower, he learned she was a resident 
of St. Louis, and was the widow of Dr. Thomas J. Kilpatrick, who had been a cele- 
brated practitioner of that city. Dr. Smith immediately sought her, and the dream of 
Ms youth met its full fruition when, in 1876, she became his wife. Her maiden name 
■was JIary Smithers. 

In the courthouse of Lexington, Kentucky, stands a beautiful statue entitled 
" Chastity Triumphant." It is the handiwork of the late celebrated sculptor, Joel T. 
Hart, who, encouraged to prosecute his sturlies, died in Europe. This work of art has 
the form and features of Mary Smithers, as he la§t saw her, and is a beautiful tribute 
and acknowledgment of their friendship. 

Mrs. Smith is a lady of great personal worth, a member of the ^Methodist Church, 
and devoted to all good works. 

Dr. and Mrs. Smith reside quietly in their elegant home at Elyton. 



Qfia/" £)a^s»i/ 



wa.s the third son of Dr. Daniel Davis. He was born in Jefferson 
County, Alabama, March 7, 1833. He received his early edu- 
cation at tlie schools of his native county. When at the age of manhood he 
selected the profession of medicine, and, after a regular course of home study 
with Dr. Jos. R. Smith, at Elyton, Alabama, he entered the Medical College of Geor- 
gia, and graduated from that institution in the year 18o3. He soon located at Truss- 
ville, Alabama, where, for several years, he practiced with distinguished skill and suc- 
cess, and here, in the midst of a growing and lucrative field of usefulness, the war found 
the devoted doctor. (His medical history, together with his father's. Dr. Daniel Davis, 
can be found in the Medical History of Jefferson County, in this volume.) Soon after 
he located at Trussville he married Miss Rhoda Georgia Anna Lathem. She was cultured, 
beautiful, lovable, and ambitious for the success of her companion, and, throwing all her 
powers into play to such an end, influenced, in a great measure, the professional success 
of her husband. Two sons were born to them. 

Dr. Davis was one of the first to lay aside his profession and enroll his name under 
tho infant banner of our native laud. He volunteered as a private soldier in the first 



Biographical. 381 



company that loft his county for the war, the 4th of June, 1861, which took the place and 
title of Company B, in the organization of the noble old Tenth Alaljama Kegiuient. In 
the fall of 1861 he was elected by his young companions to the office of lieutenant, to 
fill the first vacancy that occurred among the officers of his company. He discharged 
its duties with an efficiency and noble daring unsurpassed by any son of Alabama. 

Always at his post the command of the company devolved upon him a considerable 
portion of his long period of service. His regiment was never in an engagement, or on 
a march, but that Lieutenant Davis was on hand, and doing his duty. Through a try- 
ing campaign, near Petersburg, he had charge of a company of the battalion of sharp- 
shooters, a company of first-class soldiers and marksmen selected from his regiment — 
and here his services were so gallant as to attract the attention of both his brigadier and 
major-general, and by the former he was often spoken of in terms of highest commenda- 
tion. At his death he held the rank of major. A few days before his fall, the officers 
of superior rank waived their right to promotion, and by the unanimous voice of the 
regiment he was recommended for the position of major, which, in this regiment, was 
the highest of compliments, and the most manifest recognition of moral and military 
worth. Dr. bavis was a man of " native mind, a well-informed and accomplished gen- 
tleman, of fine, manly appearance, a brave soldier, a competent and faithful, yet mild 
and affectionate officer, and above all, a devout Christian — it was not astonishing that he 
was the pride of his company ; that he was honored by the regiment ; and that he died 
leaving his praise in the mouths of all who knew him." 

It was one year before his death during an extensive revival in Wilcox's old brig- 
ade, at Orange Court House, he was baptized and became a member of the Baptist Church, 
and up to the day of his death he was an active, working Christian, one of the most zeal- 
ous members of the " Brigade Christian Association," and manifesting a lively interest 
•in whatever promised the religious welfare of the command. " He died the 21st day of 
August. In the twinkling of an eye he was snatched from the din of battle, and 
-from the arms of a Confederate soldier to the habiliments of the saints in light, ' Where 
Heaven's armies sing!' He was lifted from the holy, yet desecrated Sabbath of earth, 
to the unending Sabbath, the rest that remains to the people of God.' " 

He left a young wife and two little boys behind him. He often spoke of his boys 
and of their mother. For them he lived, for them he battled, for them he died. His 
widow has never married, and is living in Birmingham, shedding around her an influ- 
■«nce for good, sowing seeds of charity, blessing the lives of her sons, and giving them aid 
in every good word and work. 

MM lorrlan ''^ ^ native of Jefl'erson County, Alabama, and was born 
. n. dolUail j^j^g iQ_ 1344 YvQXQ. the age of nine to fifteen years 
'his time was divided between the farm and the common schools of the neighborhood. 
At the age of fifteen he entered the high school at Elyton, where he remained for one 
year. He then matriculated at the University of Alabama. He remained at the uni- 
versity two sessions, and until he had completed the course of the junior class. Imme- 
diately after this he enlisted as private in Company G, Forty-third Alabama Regiment, 
under Captain W. J. Blims. In 1863 he was elected third lieutenant of his company, 
and was gradually promoted until the fall of 1864, when he became captain of the 
company, which position he held until the surrender of General Lee's array at Appo- 
mattox. 

When he returned home from Appomattox he found his father, a prominent citi- 
zen of the county, whom he had left in affluent circumstances, much impoverished by 
.the emancipation of his .slaves, and the loss of his farm stock and supplies. He took in 



382 Jefferson Co7tnty. 



the situation at a glance, and realizing that he must be the architect of his own fortune 
he began the study of medicine under the late Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins. In October, 
18t)5, he left Elyton for Cincinnati, to attend his first course of medical lectures at the 
Miami Medical College. 

In the spring of 1S67 he graduated at the head of his class, receiving an honorary 
certificate. Upon completing his course in medicine at Cincinnati. Dr. Jordan returned 
to Elyton to enter upon the practice of his chosen profession. He had exchanged all of 
his wordly goods and chattels, besides considerably stretching his credit, for his 
diploma, and, on reaching home, found himself not only without books, instruments, 
or a saddle horse, but absolutely penniless, and considerably in debt. 

The first thing he did after reaching Elyton was to repair to the residence of the late 
Hon. W. S. Mudd, where he knew that a loved one impatiently awaited his coming, 
and where, upon an altar which he had set up two years before, and upon which he had 
already lai<l his heart, he now also laid his diploma. To this loved one he recited his 
trials and Iiis triumphs, and from her soft words and loving smiles he drew fresh inspira- 
tion and renewed courage. 

In April, 1867, he began the practice of medicine, in copartnership with his uncle, 
Dr. Hawkins, an old and skilled practitioner. This copartnership continued until 
February 1, 1S69. In 1869 he was appointed surgeon of the Alabama penitentiary, 
which proved a good field for study and observation. He held post mortem examina- 
tions on all dead prisoners, and soon made a discovery of great value to the State. The 
prison contained a large number of lame invalid convicts, with swollen limbs and bad 
Bores. Dr. Jordan soon attributed this condition to scurvy, as it was confined to men 
under long sentences ; ordered vegetable and fresh meat diet, and in thirty da3's they 
were all convalescent. 

In 1873 he located in the infant city of Birmingham, and Ijuilt up a practice, which, 
in connection with his Elyton practice, he still retained, which constituted a very lucra- 
tive business for so young a practitioner. Soon after his removal to Birmingham the 
city was scourged with cholera. He was engaged night and day in ministering to the 
relief of the stricken during the entire period of this terrible epidemic, and for three 
weeks did not remove his clothing for a night's rest. One of the last cases was his com- 
rade and associate. Dr. J. B. Luckie, who had been equally faithful in visiting the 
afflicted, and to whom Dr. Jordan was unremitting in his attentions until he recovered. 

Dr. Jordan's reputation seemed now fully established. As the city grew his prac- 
tice increased, and soon assumed proportions, perhaps, second to none in the State, 
whether considered with reference to its scope or its profits, which, some years, must 
have run from ten to twenty thousand dollars per annum. His clientage was largely 
composed of the best class of people. He was often called in consultation to adjoining 
counties, and several times beyond the limits of his State. He performed all of the 
delicate and difficult operations that are usually done by the best surgeons, in a large 
and extensive general practice. 

Notwithstanding the engrossing cares of his practice required almost superliuman 
energy, he found time to enrich the pages of medical literature by many important 
contributions. In 1872 he wrote a history of the Surgery of Jefl'erson County, and read 
it before the Medical Association of the State, at Huntsville, Ala. In 187-1 he read a 
report of the Epidemic of Cholera in Birmingham, before the Medical Association of the 
State, at Selma, Ala., and afterward wrote a history of the epidemic, for Alabama, 
which was published, by act of Congress, as part of the history of the epidemic, for the 
United States, for the year 1873. In 1875 he published in the American Practitioner an 
article on Cliloroform Narcosis Resuscitated by Nelaton's jMetbod. This article was 



Biographical. 383 



copied by the medical press generally in the United States, and by five foreign journals — 
two French and three German — attracted the attention of the celebrated Dr. J. Marion 
Sims, and led to a correspondence between him and Dr. Jordan, which induced Dr. Jor- 
dan to go to New York, where he remained for several months as assistant to Dr. Sims. 

In 1876 Dr. Jordan published in the American Practitioner a paper on Intussuscep- 
tion of the Bowels by Distensile Enemata with the Body Inverted. In 1877 he read a 
paper on Infantile Diarrhea, before the State Medical Association, at Birmingham, Ala. 
In 1875 he published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women 
and Children a paper on the Transmission of Syphilis, by the Male Element of Repro- 
duction, to the Mother through the Fetus in Utero. In 1879 he read before the State 
Association a paper on the treatment of Postpartum Hemorrhage by the Intra- 
uterine Injection of Hot Water, which was one of the first publications in America on 
the subject. In 1882 ho read before the State Association, at ^Mobile, a report of the 
Epidemic of Typhoid Fever, as it occurred in Birmingham in 1881 and 1882. 

Dr. Jordan was at one time secretary of the Jefferson County Medical Society, and 
for two years president of it. He was a member of the State Board of Health from 
April, 1879, to April, 1883, when he was elected president of the Medical Association of 
the State of Alabama, being the youngest man in the State who had ever been pro- 
moted to a position of such distinguished honor. In 1884, at Selma, Ala., Dr. Jordan 
presided, and delivered his message, as president, before that body, his subject being: 
the Duty and Powers of Local Boards of Health. 

In September, 1886, Dr. Jordan, without any solicitation on his part, was unanimously 
elected Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and Clinical Medicine in the 
Medical College of Alabama, at Mobile. He accepted the position, removed to Mobile 
for the winter months, and soon established himself as an acceptable lecturer and 
teacher. In lecturing he uses neither manuscript nor notes, depending entirely upon 
his memory and general knowledge of the subject. This position was accepted because 
the overwork and exposure incident to the exacting demands of his practice had 
seriously impaired his health, and made a change of work and climate a necessity. 

During much the larger part of his professional career Dr. Jordan was without a 
partner in his practice. Besides the copartnership already noted there was no other, 
except one with Dr. Charles Whelan (which was entered into in 1881, and continued 
for one year, when it was dissolved by mutual consent), until 1886, when, at the request 
of Dr. Jordan, Dr .W. H. Johnson, of Selma, his present partner, moved to Birmingham, 
and associated himself with Dr. Jordan in the practice. 

In 1868 Dr. Jordan married Florence E., daughter of Judge William S. Mudd, of 
Elyton, Ala. This proved to be a very judicious and happy union; judicious, in that it 
united in his behalf the influence of two strong families, and, both judicious and happy, 
in that his chosen companion was, indeed, " a helpmeet for him," being richly endowed 
both by nature and education with all the graces of body and mind which constitute 
true and lovely womanhood. They have five surviving children, as follows: Amy L., 
Lula v., William ]\I., INIollie M., and Mortimer H. Mattie Prince died at the age of 
twenty months. 

Few men have compassed, within so small a space of time, so much work, or accom- 
plished such success. Honors have been showered upon him, in rapid succession, from 
the time he enlisted in the Confederate army until the present time. It may be truth- 
fully said of him that he has never betrayed a trust, nor, in the execution, failed to sur- 
pass the calculations of his most enthusiastic friends. While, however, his success lias 
been solid and brilliant, it has been no surprise to those who knew him best, and who 
have most closely watched his course in life. His genial nature, rich vein of humor. 



584 Jefferson County. 



^nd abundant fund of anecdote, make him a charming companion. His ardent and 
■sincere attachments to his friends bind them to him "as with hoops of steel." His 
gentle sympathy, overflowing generosity, and considerate attention to the wishes and 
regard for the feelings of those about him, seem, as a magnet, to draw all hearts to him, 
■while his unblemished life, his inflexible integrity, and clear sense of justice and fair 
dealing command universal confidence and respect. He possesses a discriminating 
judgment, a faculty of close and accurate observation, which, with a quick perception, 
enable him, at the bedside of the sick patient, to diagnose his case with almost uner- 
Ting certainty. Added to these gifts are a wonderful memory, and the power of com- 
manding his resources, even in the hour of supreme emergency, and a self-reliance and 
equanimity which begets confidence in others. Superadded to all these gifts are extra- 
■ordinary energy, both of body and mind, and a love for his profession which has over- 
shadowed and subordinated even all considerations of personal interests. 

These have been the leading factors in Dr. Jordan's life — agencies through which 
he has won social distinction and professional honor, but which have seriously impaired 
iis health. 

"\nmpr QxK^S-npr ls)(j(?6-ip tlie subject of this sketch, was born 
.^arqey JSUCKaer liyUCKie, j^^j^ ^^.^j^^ ^333^ j^^ Newton County, 

Georgia. He is the son of Hon. William Dickinson Luckie and Eliza Buckner, both 
natives of Georgia, and of Scotch descent. 

Dr. Luckie attended the common schools of his native county till he was sixteen 
years of age, when his father sent him to the Gwinnett Institute. He remained at this 
.school two years, and his health failing he returned home. Deciding to make medicine 
his profession, he began its study under Dr. John B. Headrick, who was the leading 
practitioner of his locality. Dr. Luckie attended his first course of medical lectures in 
Augusta, Ga., in the winter of 1853-54. The following winter he went to Philadelphia, 
where he graduated with honor from the Pennsylvania Medical College, in the spring of 
1855. Returning home, he began the practice of his profession in Newton County. He 
remained here, however, only a year, and then moved to Orean, Pike County, Alabama, 
where he practiced until the breaking out of the war. In 1861 he raised a company of 
infantry for service in the Confederate Army, and reported in Montgomery, Ala., for 
duty. The Confederate Government being, at that time, unable to equip his men with 
arms, etc., his company Wiis disbanded, the men returning home. Dr. Luckie, however, 
received the appointment of assistant surgeon, and was ordered to Knoxville for duty. 
When Kirby Smith made his inroad into Kentucky, Dr. Luckie accompanied him as med- 
ical purveyor, a rank to which he had been raised from that of assistant surgeon. When 
Smith's command reached Lexington, Dr. Luckie was, at his own request, relieved from 
duty as medical purveyor, and made inspector of hospitals, and served in that capacity 
■until the command returned to Knoxville. There he was made chief of the bureau of 
small-pox and vaccination for the Army of East Tennessee. When Kirby Smith was 
sent to the department of the Trans-Mississippi, the Doctor was, at his own request, 
-assigned to field duty, doing duty in Grace's Brigade, first in the Sixtietli, then in the 
Forty-Third Alabama, till the close of the war. The Doctor surrendered with his com- 
mand at Appomattox Court House. 

He then located at Pine Level, Montgomery County, and resumed his practice. 
He did not remain here long, however, but removed to the city of Montgomery, where 
he practiced until 1872, when he located in Birmingham. The following year the epi- 
•demic of cholera broke out in Birmingham, nearly depopulating it. In all this trying 




c.^^ 



Biograpliical. 387 



time Dr. Luekie remained firmly at his post, disebarging faithfully his duties as a phy- 
sician, and was himself the last person attacked by the cholera. 

In ISSO he was elected to represent the Thirteenth District in the State Senate, 
which position he filled with honor and credit. He has been councilman for the city of 
Birmingham, and it was he who, in the early days of the town, organized its fire depart- 
ment, and was himself its first chief. He also organized the Birmingham Eifles and the 
Birmingham Artillery, and was the first captain of both companies. He has served sev- 
eral terms as censor to the County Medical Society, and is a counselor of the State Med- 
ical Association. 

He married Eliza Imogen, daughter of Jas. F. and Eliza Fielder, of Georgia. His 
wife died thirteen months after marriage, leaving one child — her own namesake. In 
1866 he married his present wife, Susan Oliver, daughter of James R. and Sarah Dil- 
lard, of Montgomery County, Alabama. From this union have been born eight chil- 
dren. 

Dr. Luckie is a zealous Mason, and has held many exalted positions in the fraternity^ 
At one time he was Deputy Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch 
Ma.sons, and at another was Grand Generalissimo of the Grand Commandery of Knights 
Templar of Alabama. 

He is, at this writing, the Grand Representative of the Grand I^odge of Maine, and 
the Grand Representative of the Grand Commanderies of New York and Texas. 

He is still a resident of Birmingham, engaged in a large and lucrative practice, built 
up by his energy and skill, and is loved and honored by all who know him. 

1 k "W" '^ "^^ born at Sandy Hook, Virginia, January 21, 1830. 

Jo 12 12 ii ■ oearS pjg jj, ^^^^^ ^f Robert H. and Mary Allen Sears, who 
were both Virginians. His father is a physician, and still practicing medicine 
in that State. Young Sears' early years were spent at Sandy Hook, and his edu- 
cation, up to his eighteenth year, was obtained in the village schools and from 
private tutors. He then began the study of medicine in his father's office, and after a 
regular medical course of study at. the University of Philadelphia, Pa., graduated 
in April, 1850. Returning home he practiced, in conjunction with his father, up to the 
year 1855, and then came to Chattanooga, Tenn., where he was in active practice three 
years, and, in the meantime, had formed a copartnership with Dr. L. V. Green, of that 
place. In the winter of 1858 he went to Summerfield, Ala., and remained there until 
1860. The war coming on he espoused the Confederate cause, and spent four years in 
the Army of Korthern Virginia as surgeon. He was for a short while at Charlottesville, 
Virginia, associated with Professor John Staige Davis, who filled an important chair in 
the medical department of the University of Virginia. Immediately after this he organ- 
ized the hospital at Warrenton, Virginia, and had charge of it until the evacuation of 
Manassas, in March, 1862, and was then ordered to join the Seventh Virginia Regiment 
under Colonel James Kemper, afterward Governor Kemper, of Virginia. He took part 
in the seven days fight around Richmond, and also, the second battle of Manassas, and 
immediately after the latter was ordered back to Warrenton, and remained there until 
after the battle of Sharpsburg, and then reported to the medical directors of the army for 
duty, and was associated with Drs. Samuel H. MofFett and Joseph E. Clagett during the 
rest of the war. 

After the war was over he practiced medicine with his father one year at Sandy 
Hook, his native town, and in 1867 moved to Jefierson County, Alabama, and in 
1871, while Birmingham was still an embryonic town, began the active practice there, 
and since then has passed through all the stages of her development, and has seen her 



.388 Jefferso7i Coiinty. 



grow to bo the most considerable iron center and manufacturing city, in the same space 
of time, in the South. 

Dr. Sears is a member of the State jMedical Association, and has been vice-president 
of it. He has also been chairman of the County Board of Censors for several years. 

He was married in April, 1857, to Miss Theodosia A., daughter of Alexander and 
Catherine Spiller Findlay, of Abingdon, Va. Dr. Sears has an adopted daughter, Ella 
Mewbourne, now Mrs. John D. Elliott, of Birmingham. 

He is a Free and Accepted Jlason, and filled the principal offices in the Royal Arch 
Chapter while residing in Chattanooga, Tennesse. 

Both Dr. and Mrs. Sears belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

John C rjoyior ^^® born in Marion, Perry County, Alabama, December 23, 
^'/V V L;UZ,H^I ^ggg His father. Dr. John M. Dozier, was a South Caroli- 
nian, and after coming to Alabama practiced medicine in the latter State more than 
thirty years. His mother was a Georgian, and her maiden name was Louisa Gray. 
At the time of the birth of our subject, Marion was, and is still, the center of one of 
the most cultivated and refined communities in the State, and all young men who have 
had the rearing and training under such exceptional advantages were very fortunate. 
Our subject's early education was commenced in Pontotoc County, Mississippi, and 
subsequently he entered the University of IMississippi, at Oxford, and completed his 
course of study, prescribed by the curriculum of that institution, in the year 1855. He 
then began the study of medicine under his father's direction, which he kept up for 
two years, and after taking a course of lectures, at the Medical University at Nashville, 
Tenn., graduated in the fall of 1858. He entered upon the active practice of medicine 
at West Point, Miss., in 1859, and remained there one year, and then located at Marion, 
Ala., where he led an active, professional career of twenty-two years. 

In 1882 he came to Birmingham, Ala., and has since then had a successful practice. 
Dr. Dozier is a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society, and was the president 
of that institution during the year 1885, and is now the county health officer, to which 
he devotes much careful and pains-taking labor. 

He is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, and has taken the several 
degrees up to and including that of Knight Templar. 

Dr. Dozier enlisted in the Confederate Army as assistant surgeon in 1861, and was 
assigned to camp duty near Richmond, Va., and at a subsequent period was transferred 
to Montgomery, Ala. Afterward he was with General N. B. Forrest, who surrendered 
while fighting against tremendous odds, at Gainesville, Ala. 

Dr. Dozier was married April 24, 1860, to Miss Mary M„ daughter of John 
H. and Eliza A. Cottrell Myatt, who were native North Carolinians. To this union 
four children have been born — Lillie B., now Mrs. Ossian L. Drake, of Marion, Ala. ; 
Lucy, deceased; Henry M. and Irene, living with their parents in Birmingham. 

Dr. and Mrs. Dozier are members of the M. E. Church, South. 

Rrvf70 M H/inVloA ^^^ bom at Franklin, Tennessee, on March 19, 1857. 
Dl J^LL lYl. Iluyr(Li) jjig father, Bryce M. Hughes, was also a native of the 
same place, and was a practicing physician there for several years. His mother, 
whose maiden name was Elmira Fleming, like his father, was a native of Franklin. 
Young Hughes received liis literary and academical training there, and attended a 
popular and worthy institution under the care of Professors A. and T. Campbell, and 
completed his studies at this school when in his eighteenth year, and at once began 
the study of medicine under Dr. 'William White, remaining with him one year. He 



BiograpJiical. 389 



then left home, and entered the Louisville Medical College, and spent one year there, 
and then became a member of the University of Louisiana, and continued the prose- 
cution of his medical studies four years longer. During two years of this time he was a 
practicing physician in the celebrated charity hospital. This was an honor especially 
to be prized, as'only those students were selected who had distinguished themselves by 
their exceptionally high standing, and by the great fitness they showed for such a 
worthy trust. Out of the great number of young men who have gone to this school 
only a very limited number have achieved so high a distinction. It is certainly a pre- 
monition of future triumph to any young man to be called on to fill such a position, 
and in the present instance it has not proved an untrue indication. Dr. Hughes grad- 
uated in March, 1882, and in June of that year came to Birmingham, and, from the 
beginning of his career here, has been an exceedingly successful physician, both as to 
the extent of his practice and also as regards his popularity. He practiced alone for 
some time, and then associated himself with Dr. P. B. Lusk, which continued from 
November, 1884, until January, 1886, when he formed a new copartnership with Dr. 
William L. Chew, his present partner. This firm does practice involving the highest 
order of skill known to the profession, and, on account of special practice they do for 
large corporations, are not unfrequently called upon to perform surgical operations 
requiring skill, tact, delicacy, and nerve in their treatment, and it is no idle praise to 
say that the larger number of these have been successful in their results. 

Dr. Hughes is honored, by the brother members of his profession, as being among 
its ablest and most reliable physicians. As to his personal qualifications it may be said 
that he is genial, courteous, kind, and affable. All of those who know him, as a social 
man, find themselves pleased with his personal characteristics, and willing to be 
his continued friends. Dr. Hughes is a member of the Jeflferson County Medical Soci- 
ety, of the Board of Censors, and also of the City Board of Health. 

Willi^lFn H InPin.'Cltn'n '^^ ^ native of the good old state of North Car- 
YY lUiaill ll- Uaill[Oiai[ ^1;^^^ ^^^ ^^^ -^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ March 28, 1839. 

His father, William Johnston, was a practicing physician in that State for a 
number of years, in Lincoln County. His mother, Nancy Forney, as well as his 
father, was a native of North Carolina. Up to his fifteenth year young Johnston 
obtained his education in the ordinary country schools afl^orded in his locality, and then 
entered the Davidson College, in his native State, and remained there one year, and 
then went for a similar length of time to the University of North Carolina. The war 
then came on, and he enlisted in the Confederate service in Company K, Twenty- 
third North Carolina Regiment. He began bis army career as a non-commissioned offi- 
cer, and was subsequently promoted to be captain of his company, and at a later period 
was made colonel of the regiment. He participated in all the engagements in which 
his command took part up to the time of the battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where 
he was taken prisoner of war, and was sent to Fort McHenry, removed from their 
to Fort Delaware, and afterward to Johnson's Island. He was a prisoner twenty-two 
months, and was then liberated. At the close of the war he went to Charlotte, North 
Carolina. In the fall of 1865 he began the study of medicine, and went to New York, 
in the winter of that year, entering the medical department of the University of New 
York, and continued his studies there up to the time of his graduation, in 1867. He 
subsequently practiced in Bellevue Hospital for eighteen months, and located in the 
regular practice of his profession in New York City, where he remained for four years. 
In 1875 he came South, and began the practice in Selma, Alabama, and stayed there for 
several years. In 1886, at the instance of Dr. Mortimer H. Jordan, one of the leading 



390 Jefferson County. 



physicians of Birmingliam, he decided to locate in that city, and formed a copartner- 
ship with him in the practice of the medical profession. It is needless to say anything 
by way of panegyric of this firm, as their known ability carries with it the surest pre- 
diction that their present popularity will augment with the coming years. Dr. 
Johnston is regarded, by the members of his profession, as being one of the noblest, 
exponents of their noble science. Personally he is possessed of the many traits and 
characteristics that bespeak him the true gentleman. He is a member of the Jefferson 
County Medical Society, and belongs to the Board of State Censors. 

Dr. Johnston was married, in 1872, to Miss Kathleen, daughter of Dr. James Gage, 
of Union, South Carolina. Their union has been blessed with three children, whose 
names are Hardee, Mary P., and James F. 

Dr. and iMrs. Johnston are both members of the Episcopal Church. 

In the life laid before us there are many things to command our approval, com- 
mendation, and emulation. In all the positions in which he has been called on to act, 
Dr. Johnston has acquitted himself in such a way as to endear himself to his friends, 
and inspire the admiring regard of all who know him as a man and a citizen. 

f7h?irlDC X/^hoIsn ^^^ born in Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama, May 
Ur[Cll ILO YYr[Liari 26,1842. He is the youngest son of Charles and Ade- 
line T. Whelan, the former a native of County AVexford, Ireland, the latter of 
Winsboro, S. C, both of whom lived in Greensboro up to their deaths. 

Dr. Charles Whelan, at the age of twelve years, was sent to Asheville, N. C, to a, 
select and preparatory school, taught by Colonel Lee. Colonel Lee was a graduate of 
West Point, a distinguished lawyer of Charleston, S. C, and the uncle of the present 
General Stephen D. Lee, of Confederate fame. His school was composed, with one 
exception, of the sons of wealthy planters of Charleston and adjoining counties. 

On Dr. Whelan's return to Greensboro, he entered Spring Hill College, near Mobile, 
Alabama, under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers, where he remained two years, 
from which college he went to Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, one of the old- 
est institutions in the land, where he completed his collegiate course. He then entered 
the office of Dr. John H. Parish, of Greensboro, Alabama, under whom he commenced 
the study of medicine, and was prosecuting his studies when the clangor of arms sum- 
moned the young men of the South to war, during which excitement he enlisted in 
Captain ' James A. Wemwyss' company as a private, afterward attached to the Thirty- 
sixth Alabama Regiment, Clayton's Brigade, where he remained until he was paroled at 
Meridian at the end of the war. After being in service some tw'elve months, he was 
assigned to duty with Dr. Dabney H. Herndon, senior surgeon of the brigade, with whom 
he remained until his capture at the battle of Mission Ridge, November 25, 1863. 
He was detained a prisoner of war from the above date until October, 1864, at Fort 
Delaware, below the city of Philadelphia, under the command of General Schoeff, of 
" Fishing Creek " notoriety. Both governments clamoring for an exchange of 
prisoners, he was sent, in charge of the Confederate sick and disabled, to Rich- 
mond, Va. By permission of the surgeon general he was allowed to remain in 
Richmond and attend the ^lectures of the Medical College of Virginia. At the close 
of the session he was ordered to his regiment, then stationed at Spanish Fort, off 
Mobile. After hostilities had ceased he matriculated at the L^ni versify of Louisiana, 
at New Orleans, where he graduated in the class of 1865-66. He located in the Cane- 
brake Region of Alabama, and did a successful and lucrative practice of medicine until 
1881, from whence he came to Birmingham, and formed a copartnership with Dr. M. H. . 
Jordan, with whom he practiced for twelve months. 



Biographical. 391 



He married the daughter of Dr. James D. and Juliette Chapron Browder, of the 
Canebrake. As the result of this union they have two children, Charles and Juliette. 

He has since industriously prosecuted his profession, and has been enabled, from 
its fruits, to maintain and support himself and family in a modest, unpretentious, but 
independent style. 

Dr. Whelan and his family were reared in and are staunch adherents to the Romaa 
Catholic faith. 

He is in the prime of life, of strong, mental characteristics, and bids fair for many 
years of useful and honorable labor. 

OIKorh 7^ Honl£>U ^^^ born at Demopolis, Marengo County, Alabama,. 
piU>(^l (. O. ^y(\}\\^\j j^'Qyg„-,,jgr 29, 1848, and is a son of John AV. and 
Evelina T. Harwell Henley. His father was a lawyer, and a native of Georgia, and 
his mother a native of Alabama. His grandfather was a member of the first con- 
stitutional convention, and of the first legislature of the State. Dr. Henley attended pri- 
vate schools until the age of sixteen, then he kept books for Stephen W. Dorsey, at. 
Demopolis, for one year, after which he began the study of medicine under Dr. W. C. 
Ashe. After reading medicine one year, he entered the medical department of the 
University of Virginia in the autumn of 1867, and remained until July, 1868, then, 
entered the medical department of the University of New York, from which he grad- 
uated jMarch 2, 1869. After graduating, he returned to Hale County, Alabama, and 
began the practice of medicine in partnership with Dr. James D. Browder. Two years 
later he formed a partnership with Dr. Charles AVhelan, which lasted seven years, and 
he then practiced alone four years. Dr. Henley came to Birmingham in 1881, and has 
since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He was recently elected city phy- 
sician. In 1883 he was appointed by the Governor inspector of the penitentiary, which 
office was abolished two years later, and he was then appointed inspector of convicts, 
which position he still holds. 

Dr. Henley was married November 27, 1872, to Miss Nannie R. Taylor, and has 
one child, John W. He is a member of the M. E. Church, South, and his wife of the 
Episcopal Church. 

©) uary 19, 18o9, the first chdd of the 

lamented Dr. Elias Davis and K. Georgianua Davis. His parents were of Irish and 
Welsh descent, the Irish predominating. His father, talented and cultivated, enjoyed 
a fine plantation practice until his entrance into the Confederate service, in which 
he was killed, near Petersburg, in 1864. His mother, when young, was tall, beautiful, 
and possessed rare attainments and accomplishments. She now resides in Birming- 
ham with her two sons. 

Dr. Davis received his early education at the common schools of the county, spend- 
ing a year at Montevallo, Ala., and five months at the Pleasant Hill High School. Being 
unable, for lack of means, to take a regular college course, he pursued his studies at 
home with his mother. 

At the age of sixteen he began the study of medicine, in Birmingham, with Dr. M. 
H. Jordan. After a short time he was taken sick, and compelled to return home- 
On his recovery he traveled for a Cincinnati firm. This he soon abandoned, and 
returned to the study of medicine. He entered the Medical College of Georgia in 
1877, and graduated from that college in the spring of 1879. He located at Ferryville, 
St. Clair County, Ala., in April, 1879. He was elected censor for one year, at the first, 
22 



392 Jefferson County. 



meeting of the society after his location in the county. He was secretary of the board 
of censors, and was the first to call the attention of the society to the failure of so many 
members of the jjrofession to register under the new medical law. He was an efficient 
worker, and did much to perfect the organization of the profession in that county. 

At the expiration of his term of office he was re-elected for three years. He did a 
large practice in that county, and is said to have collected more money from his prac- 
tice than any other physician in the county during his stay there. 

He removed to Birmingham in May, 1881, where he has since enjoyed a large and 
lucrative practice. 

In April, 1883, he gave his only brother. Dr. W. E. B. Davis, an equal partnership 
in the practice of medicine, and one-half interest in the property he had accumulated 
himself. He is a hard student and a fine writer. Though always taxed by a large prac- 
tice, he has found time to give more than one hundred valuable papers to medical Ut- 
erature. 

While at Ferryville he began the investigation of the effects of malaria on the eye, 
which resulted in a paper upon " Malarial Amblyopia " by him. He was the discoverer 
of the effect of malaria upon the eye, producing amblyopia, and hence he designated it 
"Malarial Amblyopia." 

His paper on typhoid fever was copied very extensively ; his operation for the 
relief of subpericranial cephatematoma has been adopted by many surgeons of this 
country ; his paper, with illustrations, of the operation for wry-neck has been nojed 
extensively. He is conclusive in his writings, and makes his deductions clear and 
logical. 

Dr. Davis is a member of the American IMedieal Association, member of the Jef- 
ferson County Medical Society, and a member of the Alabama Surgical and Gynecolog- 
ical Association. He was elected president of the Jefferson County Medical Society for 
1887 ; was elected member for five years of the Judicial Council of the Alabama Surgi- 
cal and Gynecological Association at its organization, December 15, 1886. He was one 
of the founders of the Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal, and is one of its editors. 
He it was who suggested the necessity of a surgical association in Alabama for the 
advancement of the science of surgery. But, on meeting and discussing the question 
with Drs. H. N. Rosser and W. E. B. Davis, it was suggested by Dr. Rosser, and agreed 
to, that a movement be made to organize an association to be known as the Alabama 
Surgical and Gynecological Association. A temporary meeting was held, and Dr. Davis 
was made chairman of a committee on organization. This association will be one of the 
most scientific in the country, and will reflect credit upon its founders. He has been 
successful in medicine and his investmentsi, so much so that his income is large enough 
to support him in almost any department of his profession should he desire to so 
restrict his duties. 

Dr. Davis possesses the highest type of manliness, a brave and tender heart, a touch 
of womanly nature, strength and independence of character, and a bravery which 
yields and sways not to public opinion. Blended in his nature we find ready response 
to the suffering and sorrow of others, together with a ready defense to all that he con- 
siders right. In his profession he is honorable and just, in private life he is consistent 
and amiable, and, with the world at large, he recognizes moral equality and observes it. 
He is a member of the Baptist Church, and a teacher of a large class of ladies, 
numbering eighty-five. 



Biographical. 395 



U/illiam ^Iia5 BrouypI(^^ ^^^^^^.^:^^;^il 

early education at that place. He is the son of the late lamented Dr. Elias Davis 
and R. Georgianna Davis, who resides in Birmingham with her two sons, her only 
children. Dr. Davis attended the high school at Trussville until he was prepared 
to enter the junior class at the University of Alabama. While at the Trussville 
High School he was considered the best student in his class, and made the highest aver- 
age in the whole history of the school. His average for one year was 99i per cent., 
almost perfect. He taught school during two of his vacations, and though a young man 
made a very enviable reputation as a teacher. He was required to go before the board 
■of education of Jefferson County to procure a certificate, and at this examination he 
applied for a certificate to teach in the highest grade, and made the highest mark in that 
grade. He would often sit up the entire night rather than go to a recitation unprepared. 
He has been known to go almost an entire week without retiring, simply taking a short 
«leep in his chair, after which he would awake and resume his studies. In three years 
he advanced one year ahead of those who were one year in advance of him when he 
entered the school. At the time of hia entrance to the university he was convalescing 
from a severe case of typhoid fever, which left him so reduced that the return to hard 
study produced a decline of health, that placed his life in the balance for several months. 
Being unable to take that high stand in his class to which he had been accustomed, he 
fell into a state of despair that again reduced him to skin and bone. He was persuaded 
by his brother to travel a few months and then return to a course of home study — the 
scanty means intended for college expenses having to be expended in traveling. After 
a course of home study directed to the commencement of the study of law, he began the 
study of the legal profession, but was persuaded by his only brother, Dr. J. D. S. Davis, to 
begin the study of medicine. In 1882 he began the study of medicine at the medical 
department of the Yanderbilt University. In 1883 he attended a course of lectures at 
the Kentucky School of Medicine. The following winter he entered Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, New York City, and was graduated from that institution in 1884, and 
located in Birmingham the same year. He was given a partnership with his brother, 
vand in a very short time gained an extensive practice, which extends into the best fami- 
lies in Birmingham, having a consultation practice in all the surrounding counties 
accessible by railroad. He attended and became a member of the American Medical 
Association at its session in New Orleans, in 1885; was elected treasurer of the Jefferson 
County Medical Society in 1866; was one of the founders of the Alabama Surgical and 
Gynecological Association, and was elected its secretary for four years, and as secretary 
became chairman of the publishing committee. This being one of the most responsible 
offices in the Association, it made a wise selection in honoring this efficient worker, and 
one so capable of transacting the business of the office. 

He is one of the founders of The Alabama Medical and Surgical Journal, and one of 
its editors. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and quite active in church work. 
He is one of the editors of the Young Men's Christian Association Journal, of Birming- 
ham, and was a director of the Association until his departure for Europe, January 17, 
1887, where he went to attend the surgical clinics in London, Berlin, and Vienna. 

Dr. Davis is a man of great will power. During his course of study at the Yander- 
bilt and at the Kentucky School of Medicine, he received many compliments from the 
students and members of the faculties on his efficiency, and several letters from the 
members of these faculties to Dr. Davis and his brother show a high estimation placed 
upon him while a college student of medicine. When speaking, he is expressive and 
•effective. He is devoted to his profession, and especially attached to surgery. He 



596 Jefferson County. 



proceeds to all duties with a conclusive determination, and the results show his 
power. While he is a tine diagnostician and takes much pride in the general practice, 
he will no doubt, on his return to this country, restrict his practice to surgery. He can 
not be prevailed upon to even participate in other pursuits, his reply always being, 
" Medicine is enough for me." He is ever awake to the interests of the professsion, and 
as a journalist is fearless, saying always what he believes to be the truth. His motto is, 
" Defend the right, and denounce fraud wherever found." 

Cn\ M M i-iv»v»i-iri'\ '^ °°^ °^ those whose life, in a local sense, has more 

VSjeOrge 1 I. 1 lOrrOCO than the usual interest attaching to it, from the fact 
of his life-long residence in JeflTerson County, and he is one who has reaped the full 
measure of the development that has characterized his native county. 

He was born in Elyton, Alabama, the 20th of August, 1846. His father, _Hugh 
Morrow, is a native of Warren County, Kentucky, and came to Alabama when quite a 
"young man, and settled in Jefferson County, and is still enjoying a vigorous and hearty 
old age at his home, near Trussville. The mother of the subject of this sketch, Margaret 
Holmes, is a native Alabamian, and, like her husband, is still living at a very advanced 
age, though her years rest lightly upon her. 

George Morrow received his early education in the common schools of his native 
county, and until sixteen years old attended school at Elyton, where he enlisted in the 
Confederate service in 1863, in Company F, Seventh Alabama Cavalry, and served 
with it until the winter of 1864, and was then transferred to the famous cavalry brigade 
under command of General Joseph Wheeler, and while serving in this command was 
promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, maintaining himself by gallant and faithful 
conduct in this position until the great struggle, the like of which has rarely been par- 
alleled in the history of nations, was brought to a close. When he returned home he 
attended school one year at Elyton, and then began the regular study of medicine, 
under Dr. Joseph R. Smith. This study was kept up by young Morrow for one year, 
and he then attended the Miami Medical College, of Cincinnati, Ohio, until his gradua- 
tion in the spring of 1868, and at once began the active practice of the profession at 
Asheville, remaining there until 1871, when he came to Elyton, and practiced there until 
1878. From this time dates the most momentous step of his whole life, as from it came 
the most responsible and extended relations in which he had hitherto been an actor. 
It proved to him the flood-tide that led on to fortune. It was in this year that he came 
to Birmingham, and in company with Dr. F. D. Nabers embarked in the wholesale and 
retail drug business. This has always been, and still is, Birmingham's most extensive 
and most successful drug house, and no better evidence of the business merit of the 
firm, personally and individually, could be asked. Dr. Morrow has been an ardent 
believer from the beginning in this city's destiny, and showing his faith by his works 
has reaped an abundant harvest, which, as the years speed by, goes on, increasing in an 
enlarged and gratifying ratio. 

In personal characteristics he is noted for the kindness of heart, the simplicity and 
cordiality of manner, the sincerity of profession, and the unpretending warmth of friend- 
ship and frankness of conduct so characteristic of his whole stock. 

Dr. Morrow was first married in November, 1868, to Miss Mary E., daughter of Dr. 
Joseph and IMrs. Margaret Smith, of Elyton. To this union was born one child — Mar- 
garet J. Mrs. Morrow died in 1S73. 

Dr. Morrow was married the second time in Maj*, 1874, to Miss Susie, daughter of 
O. S. and Malinda Nabers Smith, also residents of Elyton. To this second marriage 
were born four childi-en — Lucy O., Anna, Bertha, deceased, and George M., Jr. 



Biographical. 39 7 



Dr. Morrow belongs to the Masonic Fraternity, and is Master of Birmingham Lodge^ 
No. 384, and is also Grand Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Alabama, and besides, 
is a member of the Elyton Chapter. 

Both himself and Mrs. Morrow are members of the Baptist Church. 

"LP T^:— O rr^^^&^^r^,^^ was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, October 

eHarsLia ^. (S)OCnraae ^^ ,3,3 ^,^ ,^^^^^^ ^.j^^, Cochrane, was a 

native of New York, a lawyer by profession, and practiced in that city until, his health 
failing him, he emigrated to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and entered into partnership with General 
Crabb, of whose fame as a gallant leader in tlie Mexican War all readers of American his- 
tory are well aware. The mother of Hardin P. Cochrane was Miss S. S. Louisa Perkins, 
daughter of Major Hardin Perkins. 

The home of the subject of this sketch was, at the date of his birth, well known as 
the center of refinement and culture. And it is not at all surprising that the influences 
of his surroundings should have exerted an important bearing on his destiny. 

In the spring of 1860 he went North, and remained until fall, when he entered the 
University of Alabama, being in the first corps of cadets in the institution. 1 n 1861 he 
was appointed drill master to the Confederate camps of instruction at Shelby Springs, 
and at Mobile, Ala., where he remained, mostly in detached service, until April, 1862, 
when he resigned his position as cadet and drill master to join a Confederate company 
of cavalry under Captain J. J. Pegeus, called the Warrior Rangers, but subsequently 
known as Company D, Second Alabama Cavalry. 

On one occasion, he was sent out, with a scouting party of eight men, and captured 
four of the enemy and eight of their horses. He displayed so much gallantry that in 
recognition of which he was presented with a fine horse. He participated in over fifty 
engagements, and had a horse shot under him at Kingston, Ga., while serving under 
General Joseph E. Johnston. 

Not willing to give the cause up, he volunteered to go across the Mississippi to join 
General Dick Taylor. As Taylor surrendered a few days later, he returned to his 
home in Tuscaloosa, without taking the parole, and engaged in farming for several years, 
devoting his leisure time to the study of medicine. 

He completed his medical education at the Medical University of New York, from 
which he graduated in March, 1874. He was then appointed house physician of the Col- 
ored Home Hospital, and subsequently resigned it to accept the position of assistant 
physician on Ward's Island, in New York State. 

' In November, 1874, he returned to Tuscaloosa, and began the regular practice of 
his profession, and received the appointment of surgeon to the body of men, employed 
under Colonel Horace Harding, who were engaged in the work of improving the navi- 
gation of the Black Warrior River. In October, 1875, he accepted the position of assist- 
ant surgeon of the Alabama Insane Hospital; in 1876, was chosen counselor of the 
Medical Association of Alabama, and in May, 1881, came to Birmingham, where he 
resumed the practice of his profession ; in 1884, was elected president of the Jeffer- 
son County Medical Society. 

In 1881 he was married to Miss Lalla E., daughter of Judge William S. Mudd, of 
Elyton, Ala. The happiness of this union was cut short by the death of Mrs. Coch- 
rane, during the year 1885. 

In January, 1887, he was united in marriage to his cousin, Miss Leighla O. Per- 
kins, of Franklin, Tenn. Miss Perkins' maternal ancestors, the Maurys and Fontaines, 
were Huguenots, and her family are among the most prominent of Tennessee. Her 
grandfather, Hon. Abram P. Maury, was a distinguished poHtician, serving his country 



398 Jefferson County. 



in Congress, and in the legislature of his native State. His father's family are too well 
known to need a word of commendation, save that they have always occupied positions 
of wealth and honor. 

Thus, do we see a worthy member of a noble profession acquiring, step by step, 
an enviable standing professionally, and, as a citizen, a name above reproach. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cochrane are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

T-T "X (55NA/i n n ^^^^ ^ox'o. in Greene, now Hale County, Alabama, Feb- 

e'l^f^'*^ (§)• *^Y^^ ruary 10, 1836. He comes of old Virginia stock. His 
father, Asa B. Winn, who, previous to emigrating to Alabama, was a planter, resumed 
his occupation at the time of coming to Greene County, in 1830. His mother, Anne 
E. Robertson, was also a Virginian. 

Young Winn attended the ordinary schools of his immediate vicinity until he was 
sixteen years old, and then went to Dr. Henry Tutwiler, at Greene Springs, Ala., one 
year, and then to the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, until 1854. 

On returning home he farmed, but, in the meantime, engaged in the private study of 
medicine, and in 1856-57 took medical lectures at the University at New Orleans, and in 
1857-58 at the Medical University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, graduating in the 
spring of the last mentioned year. Dr. Winn at first practiced in Marengo County, 
Alabama, and at the end of the first year went to Dallas County, and was engaged 
in practicing and farming until 1880. 

During a portion of the time up to 1880, he, like most young Southerners, had his 
war experience. It was in the spring of 1861 that he enlisted as private in the First 
Alabama Regiment of Cavalry. In 1862 he was commissioned assistant surgeon, and 
served in this capacity until the close of the war. As already stated. Dr. Winn remained 
in Dallas County until the year 1880, and then came to Birmingham, and devoted him- 
self exclusively to the practice of medicine. During this time Dr. Winn has been a 
member of the State Medical Association, and the Jefferson County Medical Society, 
and has also belonged to county board of censors, and for several years was county 
health officer. 

In 1886 he was appointed postmaster of Birmingham by President Cleveland, and, 
since his acceptance of the office, he has had the honor of seeing the free delivery of 
mails introduced in Birmingham, which, of course, has greatly facilitated the handling 
and disposing of mail matter. 

Dr. Winn was married in March, 1859, to Miss Eliza E., daughter of Alexander W. 
and Catherine B. Ellerbe, of Chesterfield County, South Carolina. He is the father of 
ten children — Alexander W., deceased, Julia R., Catherine E., Lucy L., Lillie J., 
deceased, Walter E., Annie C, Henry J , Jr., Herbert, and Eliza E. 

In January, 1887, Dr. Winn was married, the second time, to Mrs. Helen N. Boyle, 
of this city. 

Jf7 nhQrnol'hx/ ^"^ born in Marengo County, Alabama, September 6, 
. li. rlULlr(LUlj^ 1836, where he was reared. His father. Rev. T. S. Aber- 
nethy was for over fifty years a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Our subject studied medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1856-57, and graduated 
from the University of Louisiana, medical department, in the class of 1858-59. 

In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army, as surgeon of the Thirty-second Ala- 
bama Regiment, and in the last year of the war was transferred to the Forty-third Regi- 
ment, and remained with them as surgeon until the surrender of General Joseph E. 
Johnston, at Raleigh, North Carolina. During his service he was a portion of the time 



Biographical. 399 



surgeon of General H. D. Clayton's brigade, and was chief surgeon of General Breck- 
inridge's division, during his campaign in Mississippi. 

General Joseph E. Johnston, at the surrender, at Raleigh, presented every officer 
and private with a silver dollar, as a token of faithfulness to the cause they had so gal- 
lantly fought for. Dr. Abernethy was a recipient of one of these mementoes, and, it is 
needless to say, prizes it very highly. 

After the close of the war Dr. Abernethy devoted himself assiduously to the prac- 
tice of his profession, in Southern Alabama. In 1882 he came to Birmingham, where 
he has achieved a pcsition in the front ranks of the profession in JefTerson County. 

Dr. Abernethy is a gentleman of culture, and is an enterprising and public-spirited 
citizen. 

R fir A hPrnPth V ^^^ ^om Aprll 13, 1844, in Marengo County, Alabama, and 
U. VJ . n U LI 1 1 L I r [ |r ig a son of Rev. T. S. and Ellen Abernethy, natives of Ten- 
nessee and Alabama respectively. 

The early education of our subject was good, and at the age of sixteen he was pre- 
pared to enter college, but, upon the breaking out of the war, he enlisted in Company 
A, Forty-third Alabama Infantry, and served as a private until six months previous to 
the close, when he was appointed brigade assistant quartermaster, which position he 
held until the end of the struggle. 

In May, 1865, he became a teacher in his native county, and subsequently engaged 
in buying cotton for Mr. R. M. Robertson, also assisting him in a drug store conducted 
by the latter. During this service he began the study of medicine. He subsequently 
purchased the drug store, and continued his studies, together with the business, for two 
years. He subsequently farmed a short period, and practiced his profession, in Hale 
County, and then entered the medical department of the Southern University, of 
Greensboro, and took a course of lectures. After three years of subsequent practice, 
in Hale County, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, 
Maryland, and was graduated therefrom in 1880. Since 1880 he has been in active prac- 
tice in Birmingliam, where he has est-ablished an excellent reputation, both in his pro- 
fession and in private life. Since 1886 he has had associated with him his brother. Dr. 
J. C. Abernethy. Dr. Abernethy was married November 7, 1867, to Miss Elizabeth 
R., daughter of Captain John Cocke, of Hale County. Four children grace this union, 
Benjamin C, Thomas S., May J., and John C. 

month of July, 1860. His father, Nathan G. Copeland, was a farmer, and his mother, 
whose maiden name was Callie C. Grigsby, were both native Alabamians. 

The subject of this sketch was reared during his early years on the farm, and up to 
his twelfth year went to the common schools of his immediate vicinity, and then took 
a two years' course of study at Elkton, Tennessee. At the expiration of tliis time he 
pursued his studies at Bethany High School in Giles County, Tennessee, and continued 
his literary course at Elkton School one year, concluding his academical studies at 
Culleoka, Tennessee, by a further attendance of two years. At this point in his life he 
at once entered upon the preparation of life's work by entering the Jefferson Medical 
College at Philadelphia, Pa., and was an attendant there during its sessions up to his 
graduation in the fall of 1883, and being active and progressive he came to Birmingham 
in October of the same year, and since then has been in the active practice of the medi- 
cal profession. His practice has grown satisfactorily, and, though but a few years 
beyond the time that divides youth from manhood, has attained a place among the asso- 



400 Jefferson Coiinty. 



ciates of his profession, and those who seek the alleviation of his noble calling. His 
success argues well for the future. He is a member of the Jefiferson County Medical 
Society, and has served as its secretary for one year since his residence in Birmingham. 
He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, of the Knights of Pythias, and of 
the Knights of Labor. 

J_u._ Q ^illocnx/ ^^^ born near Jonesboro, November 17, 18-59, in Jefferson 
/^ ^' N'"vKy County, Alabama. His father, John S. Gillespy, was origin- 
ally from Tennessee, and settled in Bibb County in 1850, near Montevallo, Alabama. 
His mother was Martha S. McAdory, a daughter of Col. James McAdory, of Jonesboro. 
Himsglf and brother, James M., were the only children in the family. He received his 
first school training at Pleasant Hill under Prof. I. W. McAdory, and in October, 1876, 
entered the State University at Tuscaloosa. On leaving this institution he studied medi- 
cine at the Miami Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the spring of 188.3 began 
the practice in Birmingham, and in 1885 went to Scotsboro and practiced until October, 
1886, when he returned to Birmingham and resumed the practice. Dr. Gillespy is 
recognized as among the worthy and rising young members of his profession. As a 
man of business he has been successful ; no more could be expected as a reward of any 
one's best efforts. 

Dr. Gillespy was married in October, 1883, to Miss M. E. Owen, of Jonesboro, in 
this county. He has two children — Thomas O. and Mary Martha. Dr. Gillespy belongs 
to the Jefferson County Medical Society, and to the Alabama Surgical and Gynecological 
Association. Himself and wife are members of the M. E. Church, South. 



\\(\\\\-^ rr. Cr-.f\/n CV^nwt a native of Calvert County, Maryland, was 
U/llliam tO(;K(^ C;i?eU;, .^^^ ^g^^ ^.^ ^^^^^^^ BeVerly G. Chew, 



born in 
and his 

mother, Elizabeth Smith, were also natives of the same State, but it seems that while 
the subject of this sketch was quite young they emigrated to Mississippi, where the for- 
mer engaged in planting in the rich bottom lands of the famous Yazoo Valley. 

Our subject received the first rudiments of an education in Yazoo City, and kept 
this up until he was fifteen years old, and then entered the University of Mississippi at 
Oxford, where he was graduated, taking the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1882, on 
the 2Sth of June. He then entered the Tulane Medical College in New Orleans, Louis- 
iana, in October, 1883, where he remained until 1886, and during two years of his stay 
there was a member of the medical staff of the Charity Hospital connected with this 
institution. This is an honor which has been highly prized by the students of this 
popular college throughout its history, as it is an indication of superior merit and high 
standing. It therefore indicates no inconsiderable distinction and gratification to Dr. 
Chew. In April, 1886, he came to Birmingham, and associated himself with Dr. B. M. 
Hughes in the practice of his profession, and, notwithstanding the fact that he is one of 
the youngest members of it in his chosen home, he is nevertheless one of its successful 
and popular practicing physicians. 

Dr. Chew is a member of the M. E. Church, South, a member of Jefferson County 
Medical Society, a censor for five years, and a member of the County Board of Health 
for five years. 

SamUeF b. beil^etter ^'^^^ born in August, I8.55, in Mississippi, and 
?'-' IS a son of Laban L. and Mary H. Ledbetter, 

the former a native of Virginia, the latter of Kentucky. The father of Samuel was a 
merchant and planter, and our subject passed his early years on the plantation, attend- 
ing the common schools until he was seventeen years old, when he entered the 



Biographical. 401 



University of Mississippi, located at Oxford, and was graduated therefrom in 1876. 
Entering the office of Dr. Frazier, of Tupelo, Miss., he commenced reading medicine, 
and after attending the University of Louisville, Ky., two years, was graduated in 1879. 
He entered upon his professional life work in Memphis, Tenn., where he remained 
until he came to Birmingham in November of the same year, where he has been in 
constant and earnest practice. In January, 1887, he formed an association with Ur. 
James A. Cox. 

Dr. Ledbetter has confined his practice to the treatment of the eye, ear, and throat. 
Began the specialty in 1884, spending a portion of 1884 and 1885 in New York City 
prosecuting his studies in the branches mentioned, and has established a fine reputation 
as a skillful and educated physician and surgeon. 

He was married in 1882 to Jliss Nettie, daughter of Judge John C. Morrow, of Bir. 
mingham, and one child has been born to them, Samuel L., Jr. 

'\ r-, .^-^ ^ ^ Cv n^^^, is a young physician of Southern birth, fine education, 

^\am.ex3 ©rv. vS)ox , ^ • ■ , . , , ^■ t> ■ n■^ 

\S) (s> and with a promismg future before him. Born m Giles 

County, Tenn., in 1855. His parents were George J. and A. E. (Westmoreland) Cox, 
natives of Alabama, where the paternal grandfather was for many years engaged in the 
practice of medicine. Our subject commenced his studies in the public schools of 
Louisville, Ky., afterward spent three years in the high school of the same city, and 
subsequently went to the University of the South, located at Sewanee, Tenn. In the 
year 1874 he entered the Medical Department of the University of Louisville, and was 
graduated therefrom with honor. In 1876 he commenced to practice in Louisville, and 
two years thereafter went to Texas, where he remained for three years. Desiring to 
confine his practice entirely to the diseases of the eye and car, nose and throat, he went 
to New York in October, 1880, and was appointed house surgeon of the Manhattan Eye 
and Ear Hospital, where he received the superior advantages of that large institution, 
and there he remained in diligent study and attendance until the close of 1881. Return- 
ing to Texas he resumed his practice in Dallas, where he remained until he came to Bir- 
mingham in the fall of 1886, forming an association with Dr. S. L. Ledbetter. Their 
practice is confined alone to the head and throat. 

Dr. Cox is a genial gentleman, of a studious nature, and commands the respect of 
the profession and citizens. 

Po-6erf eK. 5i)erry Zl^'^'Z '!',^'''T' """f' ^^™""^' "'T'f'Lu'': 

Vs g/ 18b2. His lather, James Berry, was a merchant of that 

j)lace. The subject of our sketch, at the age of thirteen years, entered the Bingham 
School in North Carolina, and at a subsequent time went to the University of Virginia 
at Charlottes\'ille, and graduated from that splendid institution in 1882. He then entered 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and also the Polyclinic School of 
that city. Immediately after his graduation in the spring of 1883, Dr. Berry returned 
to his home in Marion, and practiced there until December, 1885, when he came to Bir- 
mingham. Since then he has successfully followed his calHng. He is a member of the 
Jefferson County Medical Society. 

Dr. Berry was married in November, 1884, to Miss Cora B., daughter of Dr. Robert 
McChesney, of Middlebrook, Augusta County, Va. Both himself and Mrs. Berry are 
members of the Presbvterian Church. 



402 



.0 

Jefferson County. ^v(7 



(D'onty »\^ C<'t;' 6^^(Vevj. 






\l/ D Hirl^rnsn ^^ born within three miles of Birmingljam, in the year 
J ■ P ^^''>°v 1828. His father was Jesse Hickman, -and his mother's 
maiden name was Clara Pullen. His grandfather, Williarn Pullen ,- was a Revolutionary 
soldier, and also one in the war of 1812. He resided near General Washington 
before leaving his native State of Virginia, and was also a personal acquaintance of his. 
He came to Alabama, in 1819, from South Carolina, and settled in Section 5, Township 
18, Jefferson County. He was engaged in farming until his death, at the advanced 
age of eighty-six. He was interred with military honors. The subject's father was a 
native of Kentucky. He came to Alabama in 1820, and was married soon after. 
He died in Texas, in 183S. His mother was married, the second time, to the 
Rev. Joseph Byers, a native of South Carolina, who died in 1874. His father 
was a farmer and live-stock breeder, and the subject was reared in Jefferson 
County, and has always lived here, and been identified with its interests. All of 
his education was obtained at the country schools in his native county. For 
the first ten years of his active life he was engaged in farming. He then clerked 
for W. C. Eubank, a merchant of Elyton^ for two years, and the four following 
years clerked for Robertson & DeJarnette, at Monte vallo, Ala. In 1855 he returned to 
Elyton, and was associated with W. C. Kubank, under the firm name of Hickman & 
Eubank, in a general merchandising business for ten years. During the war he issued 
supplies to all portions of the county, and, in this way, became extensively acquainted 
with the people. After the war he moved fourteen miles north of Birmingham, and 
was engaged in farming for two years. He still owns nearly three thousand acres of 
land in that vicinity, a part of which is mineral land. In 1868 he commenced farming 
at Trussville, and continued there for eight years. In 1877 he was elected treasurer of 
the county, and is now serving his third term in that office. The first term was for 
three years, and the two latter for four years each. He had also previously served two- 
terms, from 1862 to 1868. 

Mr. Hickman still keeps up his farming interests, and, in this connection, it is 
interesting to note that in 1868 he cultivated the land where the courthouse now stands, 
as well'as the adjoining land. It was then the property of Mr. W. F. Nabers. 

In 1855 Mr. Hickman was married to Mrs. E. S. Oden, whose maiden name was 
Hamilton, a daughter of Andy Hamilton, an early settler in the county. 

Mr. Hickman is the father of six children, Fannie J., Hewitt, Cunningham W., 
Clara E., Jennie, Sears, and Jesse. He is a Mason, and joined Farrow Lodge in 1856. 
Both he and his wife are members of the M. E. Church, South. 

Mr. Hickman is a citizen in whom those desirable qualities of mtegrity, honesty, 
and sterling worth are combined, and by reason of these characteristics is due his long 
continuance in office. 



Biographical. 4^3 • 



5 1? T^rJlCC '® '^ native of Jefferson County, and was born in Trussville in 1848.. 
. 1^. Ql CJ^^ He is a son of John and Margaret Worthington Truss. Some years 
after his birth his father emigrated to Texas, and died there in 1867. His mother died 
in 1801'. 

Mr. Truss was reared in Jefferson County, and educated in its common schools. 
He w;is in the Confederate Army, and was a member of a company raised by Captaia 
J. K. Truss. Four montlis after the close of the war he started, with a colony organ- 
ized by Hastings, of New Orleans, to South America, and was shipwrecked, with the 
rest, on the island of Cuba. After this disastrous voyage he returned to South Ala- 
bama, and engaged in farming one year in Hale County, and then went to Ladonia, 
Texivs, and farmed near that place, and stayed there until 1869, when he, with his brother 
Thomas and two sisters, returned to Jefferson County. He farmed for some time near • 
New Castle, and was engaged, in 1873, in the charcoal trade at Anniston. In the fol- 
lowing year he returned to near New Castle. In the year 1884 occurred the most import- 
ant event of his career. He was elected sheriff of Jefferson County by the largest 
majority ever given any man for sheriff' in the county, for a terrn of four years. In the- 
administration of this office his course has been marked by capacity, prompt and' 
courageous discharge of duty. He has, therefore, made an acceptable officer to the 
public, in a very trying position. There is no more responsible office in the State than 
that of sheriff of Jefferson County. With its rapid growth, many turbulent elements 
arise to be dealt with and brought under the restrictions of law and order, and it not 
unfrequently hajipens that the sheriff is called upon to act in emergencies requiring 
judgment, tact, and courage. In all of these requisites Mr. Truss has proved himself 
entirely equal to the occasion. Personally he is possessed of those qualities that recom-- 
mend him to the courteous attention of ail with whom he comes in contact, and as a 
friend he is sincere and warm-hearted. 

Mr. Truss was married iu October, 188.5, to Miss Mattie Burwell, a daughter of Mr. 
O. S. Burwell, a native of Connecticut, but an early settler of Jefferson County. He is 
a member of the Knights of Pythias. Fortune has been lavish of her favors on him, 
and, amid all the progress that has characterized her history since his return, he has 
been, like many others, a direct beneficiary. He has a handsome residence in North 
Birmingham, and is surrounded by all those relations which render domestic life 
pleasant. 

Q I T-,|._-,_i, w;is born June 17, 1832, five miles from the present city of 
I ' J' \ ' Birmingham. The only early educational advantages he enjoyed 

were such as the common schools of his immediate locality afforded, and were very 
good for that day and time. As honesty of motive and purpose has ever characterized 
his course in life he made the most of these opportunities, and it is not surprising- 
that he has achieved that degree of worth among his fellow men which ever falls to 
the lot of those who act from such conceptions of duty. His father, Benjamin Tar- 
rant, was one of the pioneers of the county, and came from South Carolina, near Green- 
ville, and settled in Jefferson County, in the year 1819. His mother, Morning Richard- 
son, also came from the same State as his father. They were man and wife for fifty 
years, and lived together to see their golden wedding celebrated, an event which 
rarely ever occurs in the lives of any couple. There were seven children in the family, 
six girls and one boy, of whom the boy was the youngest. Peace and plenty character- 
ized the condition of the people in those early days. 

During the time that young Tarrant was going to school he assisted his father on 
the farm. At the age of sixteen he left school, and gave his service to the farm. Right 



404 Jefferson County. 



here it may not be amiss to make a statement in reference to his father which will be 
of interest to many of the old settlers now living in Jefferson County. When his 
father had attained the age of fifty he became a Methodist minister — a local preacher, 
not a circuit rider. He was a local preacher of the gospel for thirty years. At the date 
of his death he liad attained the advanced age of eighty-two, and died with the bene- 
diction of his neighbors and friends resting upon him. The companion of his life died 
at the age of seventy. 

Young Tarrant, on leaving school, as already stated, went to the farm, and pro- 
vided the means of sustenance to his aged parents. He lived in the same house with 
them until he was near thirty years old. In 1860 he was married to Mrs. Martha J. 
Massey, and then moved a short distance from the parental abode and engaged in 
farming on his own account, but still looked after his father's and mother's wants. He 
was very successful as a farmer, and still owns the particular farm which he then pur- 
chased, situated about eight miles from Birmingham. 

As a singular coincidence, it maybe stated that his father filled the same office which 
the son is at present filling. The former was tax iissessor, and also collector, filling one 
term in each office, prior to 1837, and in that year represented his county in the State 
Legislature. The son, as will be seen further on, was made assessor, which office he 
has held for some years. 

Life with young Tarrant passed on smoothly until the breaking out of the war. 
He enlisted in Company C, Twentieth Alabama Regiment. The company was raised 
by Colonel Porter, now judge of the probate court of Jefferson County. He was 
orderly sergeant of his company, and came out of the war as its captain. It was on 
September 15, 1861, that he went out as a soldier, and remained until almost the very 
last battle. He was in some of the fiercest engagements of the bloody drama. Among 
these may be mentioned the battle of Port Gibson, Baker's Creek, the siege of Vicks- 
burg, the battle at Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and was in the campaigns 
through Tennessee and Georgia, and also at the fall of Atlanta. He recollects with 
vivid memory the horrible sufferings of those terrible days of carnage. His last battle 
was fought in North Carolina under General D. H. Hill. His immediate brigade com- 
mander was General E. W. Pettus. He was selected by him, when near Atlanta, and 
placed in charge of a reconnoitering party of fifty picked men, and made a special 
reconnoissance. He captured a surgeon, with his wagon and driver, and also thirty 
German soldiers, who could not pronounce a word of English. He was then, for a 
short time, in command of the battalion at the same place. After the battle under 
General Hill he was detailed by General Pettus, and sent on special service to Macon, 
Georgia, and from there to Montgomery, Alabama, and then to Selma, and 
passed through the latter place on the morning of the day when it fell. The doom of 
the Confederacy was then sealed, and he walked through the country most of the way 
from that place to his home, as well as most of the distance from Macon, Georgia, to 
Selma. He was wounded once in all these battles, and the same bullet which struck 
him also wounded a companion of his by the name of Dock Robertson, a member of 
the same company, and a native of Jeflerson County. 

He arrived at his home April 6, 1865, and found it literally swept of everything, 
and, though it was late in the year, he set to work with a brave heart and determined 
will, made a fine crop that year, and continued to farm successfully up to August, 
1880, when he was elected tax assessor of Jefferson County, and has filled the office 
ever since, by re-election. In this position he has made a faithful, efficient officer, and, 
.judging his term of service by the good will of his fellow citizens, he will enjoy many 
more re-elections at their hands. 



BiograpJiical. 405 



Captain Tarrant is yet liale and hearty, and the years of his h£e rest lightly upon 
him. He is one of those of whom it can be said that the world is better for his having 
lived in it, and his particular community can appreciate the fact, also, as he has been 
a life-long resident within its limits. 

Captain Tarrant is the father of two children, one of whom, a son now grown, is 
his father's assistant in the office he holds, and the other, a daughter, also grown, who 
is married and living at Pratt Mines. Both himself and Mrs. Tarrant and family are 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

r^Tt^nnB- M r^i*irin ^^'''^ born in Corinth, Miss., November 13, 1856. His 
©jranK l l. Ig^riOr^ ^.^^^^^^^ William M. Irlon, came from Hardeman County, 
Tennessee, but at an early period in American history his ancestors came either 
from Alsace or Lorraine. His mother, Mary A Glasgow, was from the same county 
as his father, and her ancestors were Scotch. There were four children born to them — 
Thomas, James T., for some time a resident of Birmingham, but after leaving here 
was killed in the Black Hills, by the Indians, while in the employ of the Montana 
Herd Company ; and Mary P. McEldery, living in Talladega Count}-. 

Among his very earliest recollections was hearing the booming of cannon during^ 
the raging of the battle of Shiloh, which was not more than twenty miles from his home. 
Shortly after this his father was killed at the battle of Perryville, Ky. 

His mother died at the beginning of the war. After this he and his brothers and 
sisters were members of the family of the noble and good Major Thomas Peters, until 
they w&re grown, and with them, during the war, they were refugees in Alabama, Florida, 
and Georgia. The first school he attended was in Marianna, Fla. He came back ta 
Alabama six monthe before the close of the war, and lived in Selma, where he remained 
until 1868. He went to school at Munford, Talladega County, Alabama, and in 1869 
came with Major Peters' family to Jefferson County, and for three years was a pupil, at 
Elyton, of Professor S. L. Robertson, an accomplished gentleman, and thorough edu- 
cator. 

In 1873 he attended commercial college in St. Louis for one session, and in 187-t 
went to Memphis, where he worked in the freight office of the Memphis & Little Rock 
Railroad until the fever epidemic in 1879. He returned there for a short time after that 
terrible scourge. Leaving Memphis he returned to Birmingham, and worked alter- 
nately at the freight office of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the land office of 
Major Peters most of the time up to December 17, 188.5, when he was first appointed 
clerk and register of the city court of Birmingham. In August, 1886, he was reap- 
pointed for a term of six years. 

In March, 1883, he was made captain of the Birmingham Rifles, and continued to be 
their captain until they were disbanded. 

He is Past Chancellor of the Jefferson Valley Lodge, No. 7, Knights of Pythias, and 
a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham. 

(T) /^ Ci „ _ rl Pp 1 1 ''^*® clerk of the circuit court of Jefferson County, is a 
■"Vs* ^^' ■feJrUt.^ie-Lj, native of Cumberland County, Va., and was born in 1839. 

His parents, William R. and Ellen S. Carrington Bradley, were both natives of Vir- 
ginia, but immigrants to Alabama in the year 1848, settling in Marion County, where 
they followed farming. 

Richard was reared in Marion County, where he received an ordinary education. 
In 1860, when only twenty-one years of age, he was elected clerk of the circuit court of 
that county. He discharged the duties of the office faithfully, and in 1864 was re-elected^ 



4o6 Jefferson Co2inty. 



This was one of the most trying periods of the war — the Confederacy in its last struggle 
■for existence, and his section was infested with bands of robbers and stragglers from 
demoralized armies. 

Upon the night of the 9th of April, 1865, an incident occurred which will long be 
remembered by him. Returning home from a call upon a neighbor, the house in which 
■ he boarded was attacked by three robbers. He was the only man about the place except 
a very old one, and being unarmed he was forced to stand and see them, unresisted, 
carry off the plunder, and march him along with it to a neighbor's house. They were 
also in the act of robbing that when Mr. Bradley seized a shot gun lying on a bed by 
him, and shot the captain of the squad dead. The others took to their heels and 
escaped, but were subsequently caught and executed by lynch law. Mr. Bradley was 
not even arrested, but was highly praLsed for his heroic conduct. He has written a 
highly interesting and exciting narrative of this event, which will be published. 

In January, 18(38, Mr. Bradley removed to Elyton, where he resided until Decem- 
ber, 1872, and then moved to Oxmoor, where he resided until appointed county clerk, in 
January, 1880. In August of the same year he was elected by the people for a term of 
six years. This term of service ended November, 1886, and Mr. Bradley removed to 
Florida to engage in fruit culture. 

He still retains interests in Jefferson County, where he made the record of an effi- 
cient and honest public officer, and is respected as a pure and upright citizen. 

Mr. Bradley married September 6, 1866, to Miss Sallie Gurley, of Pickens County, 
.Alabama. His wife died September 14, 1884, leaving four children. 

Mr. Bradley is a member of the M. E. Church, South. 



©y. 



M Rr t»/-ri t-> '^ ^ native of Jeffi^rson County, Alabama, and was born in 
1 I. DUrgil^ jggQ Heisasonof W. M.Burgin.andEUzabethC. McWil- 



liams, both natives of Alabama His maternal grandfather was from South Carolina. 
On the father's side he is of Virginia descent, and on the mother's, of Scotch. Hia 
father has been a farmer in Jefferson County for many years, and is still living near 
Birmingham. His grandfather McWilliams died in August, 1886, at the extreme age of 
eighty-six. The latter was also an extensive farmer of Jefferson County for many 
years. 

The subject of this sketch was reared and educated in this county. His education 
was a common-school one, and one year spent at the Lebanon University, in Tennessee. 
At first he taught in the public schools of Jefferson, and in 1878 engaged in merchan- 
dising in Birmingham, and continued in that business for eight years. In 1886, at the 
general State election, he was elected clerk of the circuit court. His election was due 
to the appreciation of his worth by his many friends throughout the county. He 
resigned this position to accept the clerkship of the criminal court of Jell'erson County. 

In 1880, Mr. Burgin was married to Miss Mary E., a daughter of Mr. A. K. Martin, 
of Birmingham. He is the father of two children — Katie and Jennie. 

Both he and Mrs. Burgin are members of the M. E. Church, South. 



iJerguA ©Y^^. (T\c(^ari'HLj 



was born in Cole County, Missouri, Novem- 



McCarthy, died when our subject was an infant. His mother's maiden name was Miss T. 
R. O'Grady. She went to Vicksburg, Miss., in 18U0, and lived there until August 3, 
1863, and then came to Montgomery, Ala. He commenced going to the Catholic parish 
school there when nine years old, and continued, without intermission, until October, 



Biographical. 407 



1871, and then went to Spring Hill College, near Mobile, Ala., an institution under the 
supervision of the Catholic Fathers, where he took a classical course and graduated in 
July, 1878. 

He was occupied in various ways until December, 1881, and then joined an engin- 
eering corps engaged in surveying the Georgia Pacific Railroad, now one of the most 
important lines running into Birmingham. He was next timekeeper on the First and 
Sixth Residencies, from December 1, 1881, to May, 1883, and then rejoined the engin- 
eering corps, and acted in double capacity of roadman and draughtsman for three 
months. 

Shortly after this he accepted the responsible position of bookkeeper for the Coal- 
burg Coal & Coke Company, September 11, 1883, and retained it until his resignation 
on the 10th of February, 1887. The business of the company increased tenfold during 
his connection with it, and his duties made it incumbent upon him to pay out the 
wages of several hundred men every month. He discharged his trust with satisfaction 
to his employers. 

Mr. McCarthy is now in the employment of an abstract company in Birmingham, 
and, no doubt, will here, as elsewhere, signalize himself for faithfulness to duty. 

Mr. McCarthy was married November 9, 1884, to Miss Christina Stein, of Coalburg, 
Alabama. 

He is a member of the Catholic Church. Mrs. McCarthy is a member of the Pres- 
byterian Church. 

In March, 1887, he was appointed, by Governor Seay, circuit clerk of Jefferson 
County. This is but another just recognition of his capacity. 

25, 1850. He is the youngest child of John and Frances Evans, both descended from 
families which, in the early history of the "Old North State," contributed largely to 
her glory. 

When young Evans had scarce passed his fifth year, misfortune overtook him in the 

■death of his father. He was thus left at a tender age to struggle with life as best he 
may, but the struggle developed a character whose predominant elements are industry, 
discreetness, and independence. A few years later his widowed mother, with the 
younger children, moved to Fernandina, Florida. No sooner was she comfortably 

■ settled in her new home, and prepared to educate her children, than the opening of the 
war between the States thwarted her designs, and compelled her and her interesting 
iamily to seek safety with relatives in the interior of Georgia. Here, of course, young 
Evans' educational facilities were meager and subject to serious interruptions. He was 

'entered at the military academy, in Tallahassee, but the heated struggle along the coast 
soon compelled him to return to his home, where he must satisfy his swelling ambition 
as the head of the household. 

At the close of the war he determined to learn the printing business, and entered 
the office of the Albany News, then edited by his brother-in-law. Colonel Carey W. 
Styles. Having mastered the mysteries of typesetting in a short time, he was sent to a 
school in Carroll County, Georgia. Here he made rapid progress, and at the completion 
of his course he entered a business college at Macon. Upon his return to Albany he 
accepted a partnership in the Albany News, and soon became widely known as the " Boy 
Editor of Georgia." After the consolidation of the Albany News and Advertiser, in 
1876, Mr. Evans still remained the controlling spirit of the new organ, and developed 
it into one of the strongest and most influential papers in the State. He had now an 



4o8 Jefferson Coimty. 



established reputation as a journalist, and hosts of warm and admiring friends, through 
whose aid he could command positions of honor and trust in the State. 

But Mr. Evans was not the man to rest upon the laurels he had already won ; he 
looked abroad for newer and more promising fields for the exercise of his talents, and 
in July, 1881, he came to Birmingham, where he bought a one-half interest in the 
Weekly Iron Age. In the following December he and his partner, Mr. W. C. Garrett, 
established the Daily Age, and in September, 1882, the Iron Age Publishing Company 
was organized, with Mr. Evans as its president and general manager. He resigned this 
position in JSIay, 1883, on account of ill health, but soon after established the Sunday 
Chronicle, and the following January, with Messrs. Grace and Cruikshank as partners, 
he established the Evening Chronicle, now one of the leading evening papers in the 
South. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that Mr. Evans, though still a j-oung man, 
enjoys the enviable distinction of being the father of Birmingham journalism. To his 
remarkable foresight and sagacity, Birmingham is largely indebted for her present vigor- 
ous and progressive dailies, whose columns still bear the impress of their founder. 
But Mr. Evans' varied qualifications have not been confined to his journalistic 
achievements. His rare tact and business ability received recognition at the hands of 
the people of his adopted city by his election, in 1882, as alderman from the Fourth 
Ward. In this capacity he served the city for two years, when he was elected city 
clerk, and in April, 1886, he was promoted to the position of city treasurer. It is but 
justice to Mr. Evans to state, in this connection, that all, or nearly all, the city ordi- 
nances passed since 1882 are the products of his pen, and the admirably arranged city 
code, recently prepared by him, is but a fair illustration of his painstaking precision in 
all he undertakes. 

Mr. Evans was married in January, 1875, to Miss Callie L. Hill, of Burton County, 
Georgia, who, together with three interesting children, constitute his household. In 
the lady of his choice are combined many of the most charming traits of woman ; her 
excellent judgment, quiet domestic habits, energy, and intelligence, make her a most 
worthy helpmate to her husband. 

But few men in any progressive city become potent factors in its history. Mr. 
Evans has always evinced a deep interest in every movement pertaining to the pros- 
perity of Birmingham, and more, he has been one of the most active agents in its up- 
building since his advent to the city. Modest and even diffident in his demeanor, he is 
sought as a cautious and prudent adviser in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the 
city. Such men are rare, and, if wanting in aggressiveness and self-assertion, are more 
frequently overlooked than overpraised. 

In his social as well as in his business relations, Mr. Evans' character may be 
described as the embodiment, to a remarkable degree, of the advice given by Polonius to 
Laertes : 

" Give thy thoughts no tongue, 

Nor any improportioned thought his act. 

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 

Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried, 

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ; 

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 

Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 

Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in. 

Bear 't that the opposer may beware of thee. 

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice ; 

Take every man's censure, but reserve thy judgment." 



Biographical. 409 



"Lf-, — ^. . 7I^Afi,..« M^ "K®^ .~ .^ ^ . . ^vas born in Lexineton, Kentucky, 

eHer^n/ Upx^Hur Hc^iriae^ ^o.:r.\,.r 2, i.m h; was of 'a 

Scotch-English descent. His father, James G. ilcKinney, emigrated from Virginia at 
an early period, and merchandised for many years in Lexington. His mother, Eliza 
Churchill, was a Kentuckian. Henry lived in Lexington until he was nine years old, 
and then went to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with his mother, and lived there until he 
was twenty-one. His education was attained there, and terminated when he was 
sixteen years old. His iirst independent work was in the county clerk's office at 
Elizabethtown, copying deeds and other papers, and he then acted as agent for an im- 
portant stage line between Louisville and Na.shville. Stages were the sole and only- 
means of travel in that part of the' country at that day. He worked for this line one 
and a half years, and then secured a position as route agent with the Adams Express 
Company, on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and ran between these cities for one 
year, and was then ticket agent for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in Louisville 
for one and a half years, or until the war broke out. He enlisted in Company G, 
Eighth Kentucky Regiment, Confederate Army, as a private. His colonel was H. B. 
Lyon, a brave and courteous gentleman. Young McKinney was at first elected a lieu- 
tenant, and subsequently captain of his company. He took part in the battles of 
Cotfeeville and Fort Donelson, and was surrendered on February 14, 1862, at the sur- 
render of the fort. After several months imprisonment he was brought to Vicksburg 
and exchanged. He rejoined his command, and was at the battle of Baker's Creek,. 
the Big Black, and Vicksburg. He was in the seven days' fight around Jackson, Mis- 
sissippi. In all these engagements his brigade commander was General Lloyd Tilgh- 
man, and his division commander General Loring. He fought under General N. B. 
Forrest, from Blue Mountain, Calhoun County, on the Selma, Rome & Dalton Railroad 
down to Selma. From that point he continued on to Jackson, Mississippi, where his com- 
mand surrendered. In evidence of and high testimonial to the loyalty and devotion to 
duty of his regiment, it need only be mentioned that at the commencement of the war 
it numbered twelve hundred men, and at its close the ranks had dwindled to sixty- 
three by deaths and disabilities incurred in the service. 

He married, in 1864, Miss Lulie Richardson, of Brandon, Mississippi. She was a 
daughter of Mr. Wm. H. Richardson, of that town, and a near relative of Colonel 
Edmond Richardson, who was the largest individual cotton planter in the world. The 
close of the war found him penniless, with a young wife to provide for. An amusing 
occurrence of the strange working of events may be recited. The first ten cents of 
legal money, as well as the first money he obtained after the war, was given to him by 
a Federal soldier. In June, 1865, he went to Kentucky, and after remaining with his 
relatives some months, returned to Mississippi, and brought with him a part of a cargo 
of bagging and ties, which he sold at a considerable profit. Subsequently he engaged 
in farming for a year and a half, and then secured a position in a general merchandise 
house in Brandon, where he remained thirteen and a half years. After this he became 
a commercial traveler for four years, and in 1884 settled in Birmingham. Mr. McKin- 
ney has served on the city police force of Birmingham, and was elevated to the import- 
ant and responsible position of city clerk May 6, 1886. Mr. McKinney has three 
children — Mary S., William R., and Florence L. 

He is a member of the Masonic order and Knights of Pythias, and he and Mrs.. 
McKinney are members of the Episcopal Church. 
32 



4 1 o Jefferson County. 

Tohn Hprhprl' Dhillin.'s Superinendent of Public Schools of Birming- 
t>Ur[r[ IlLlULll 1 l[UUpD, ham, was bom in Covington, Kentucky, Decem- 
ber 12, 1853. In 1858, when he was not quite five years of age, his parents moved to 
Southwestern Ohio, and there he spent the uneventful days of boyhood on a farm. At 
an early age he attended the public schools of Ohio, where he received his elementary 
education. 

In 1S71 young Phillips was induced to take a position as teacher in a public school, 
near Charlestown, West Virginia, where he remained until 1875, when he entered the 
preparatory department of Marietta College, Ohio, from which institution he graduated 
with honors in 1880. Immediately upon graduation he was elected principal of the 
public high school at Gallipolis, Ohio, in a contest with twenty-five applicants. He was 
re-elected, with an increase of salary, in 1881-82, and had been elected for the fourth 
year, when he resigned to accept the work of establishing the present public school 
system of Birmingham, the success of which has won for him an enviable reputation in 
educational circles. 

In August, 1885, Professor Phillips was elected president of the Chautauqua class of 
1889, which numbers over twenty-five thousand members — a most worthy distinction, 
and an honor bestowed upon few men. He has recently delivered several addresses in 
connection with this work at Chautauqua, N. Y., Monteagle, Tenn., and De Funiak 
Springs, Fla. 

Professor Phillips' work in building up the public-school system of Birmingham 
deserves more than a passing notice, for the success of his efforts have proven a factor 
in the rapid development of the city unsurpassed in power by blast furnaces, machine 
shops, coal mines, or any other industrial agency. Coming to Birmingham, in 1883, a 
stranger from the North, acquainted with no one in the State limits, to enter a contest 
for position where public officials were to sit as judge and jury, with a jealous public 
eye (oftentimesprejudiced), watching every movement, the effort was embarrassing, and 
only a man of good sense could have so modestly and, at the same time, resolutely won 
his way in so short a time to the good opinion of a majority of the electors. He was 
elected in a close contest over a gentleman well known for years in this community, and 
who had few, if any, personal enemies. 

Professor Phillips at once saw before him a vast work. The school system here was 
in its infancy. In fact, he saw only the " warp," and knew that the " woof " was not ; 
but he possessed the necessary requisites for the conflict before him — a steady aim, a 
strong arm, willing hands, and resolute will. He had a noble purpose, took it up 
bravely, bears it joyfully, and will lay it down triumphantly. 

The writer has not room, in the brief space allotted him for this sketch, to state 
clearly and in detail the system adopted by Professor Phillips, which has placed the 
Birmingham public schools so far in advance of any other in the South in so short a time, 
but the system guides the young with the motto, " Nature holds for each of us all that we 
need to make us useful and happy, but she requires us to labor for all that we get." 
And this truth is impressed upon the young mind from the beginning. Professor Phil- 
lips rightly considers education det:elopment, not simply instruction or facts and rules 
communicated by the teachers, but a waking up of latent powers, a growth of the mind 
and a training of the child to think, and awakening its mind to observe, to reflect, and 
to combine. His system has reference to the whole child — the body, the mind, and the 
heart — hence his success. 

The subject of this sketch is a man of practical ability, not a theorist. He believes 
that "life is action." He possesses knowledge not only of books but of men, and, let 



Biograph ical. 411 



the world say what it may, it requires quick penetration and sagacity to acquire the 
latter, while labor may win the former. 

Professor Phillips is a member of the Presbyterian Church, a Knight Templar, and a 
member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Socially he is a sought as a gentleman, the adorn- 
ments of whose character brightens the way. He is a fluent speaker, a fine conversa- 
tionalist, a learned man of his years, but his true dignity, sound discretion, and modest 
demeanor will not allow his inferiors in either regard to become embarrassed in his 
presence, hence, he may be called companionable, and, in the home of his adoption, he 
numbers among his personal friends men of all classes. — From the New South. 

Professor Phillips was united in marriage December 27, 1886, with Miss Nellie T. 
Cobbs, daughter of Chancellor Thomas Cobbs, of Birmingham, a lady well known 
throughout the State as a superior vocalist, and one who is well fitted, by her domestic 
virtues and literary accomplishments, to be a helpmate and life assistant in his chosen 
work. 

T I? (T^rfor city Engineer, is a native of Pulaski, Tenn., and son of Major 
O. rv. \.^U1 bL<l ^ B. F. Carter, a gallant and distinguished officer, who served 
upon the staff' of General John C. Brown during the late war between the States. 

Mr. Carter received his education at Giles College, in his native town, supplemented 
by a thorough course at the University of Virginia. Though his studies were pursued 
and finished wholly with a view to the profession in which he was subsequently dis- 
tinguished, his first employment was under the United States Government as ganger, 
for the district of Middle Tennessee. In this capacity he served about three years, 
which period introduced the year 1880, and found him soon afterward in the Far West, 
with the Texas Pacific Railway Company, as assistant engineer in charge of location 
upon the Rio Grande division. He was now fully started upon the practical part of the 
profession for which he was taught, and which, for three years after leaving college, he 
had neglected, through necessity growing out of the well-remembered stagnation of all 
business, particularly of railroad construction, consequent upon the panic of 1877. 

Mr. Carter remained with the Texas Pacific until its completion to El Paso, and 
enjoys the distinction of having, in the discharge of the duties assigned him, ran the 
longest continuous line of levels ever run by any engineer in the United States. 

Leaving El Paso, and still in the employ of the Gould Company, he went to the 
City of Mexico, as an assistant engineer upon the Mexico Oriental Railway. Yellow 
fever drove this surveying party from the field, and Mr. Carter visited Monterey, where 
he was several months in the employ of a Spanish Railway Company, and from whence 
he returned to the United States in 1884. 

In March, of this year, he was elected to the position he has since filled with the 
highest credit to himself, and the unalloyed satisfaction of the citizens. 



4 1 2 Jefferso7i County. 



^)rf Pvfjj. 



October 21, ISoO. His paternal grandfather was a native of Amelia County, Virginia, 
and descended from one of three Welsh brothers, who emigrated to Virginia in its 
earliest history. He went to Georgia early in life, and there married. Afterward he 
removed to the valley of the Tennessee, in Northern Alabama, near Courtland, where 
he made very large investments in the fertile lands of the valley, and became owner of 
large cotton plantations and many slaves. The father of James L., Robert H. Watkins, 
married Miss Carter, of Pulaski, Tenn., w'here he settled. She was the daughter of Dr. 
Benjamin Carter, a well-known physician in that country, who was of Scotch descent, 
though a native of South Carolina. 

R. H. Watkins and family removed to Huntsville, Ala., in 1861, where he and hfs 
■wife both died — one in 1863, the other in 1864. He had erected in that beautiful town 
one of the handsomest residences in the South. 

The education, during the war, of J. L. Watkins was obtained, as circumstances 
permitted, at home from members of his family. He was placed at school, for several 
years after the war, to Dr. Carlos G. Smith, a well-known preceptor in this State. His 
scholastic training ended with a two years' course — 1868-69 — at the Virginia ]\Iilitary 
Institute. After this he engaged as clerk in a dry goods house at Huntsville, and studied 
law in 1870 in the office of Beirne & Gordon, Huntsville, and subsequently in St. Louis. 
He was admitted to the bar and began practice in St. Louis in the fall of 1871, in his 
twenty-first year. He practiced there until December, 1874, when, on account of severe 
illness, induced by the climate he returned to Huntsville. There he was married to Miss 
Matthews, in January, 1875. From 1875 to 1882 he engaged in farming pursuits in Mad- 
ison and Limestone Counties. 

Removing to Birmingham in March, 1882, he, with his brother, R. H. Watkins, 
bought and edited the Weekly Observer, until its consolidation, September, 1882, with 
the Weekly Iron Age. 

:Mr. Watkins is president of the Iron Age Publishing Company, which issues the 
Birmingham Age, a daily, and the Weekly Iron Age. He is a progressive journalist, 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the New South, studious of great public questions, 
and always ready to lead in any practical enterprises adapted to the prosperity of Bir- 
mingham. He posseiSses one of the mo.st valuable elements in the character of the 
editor of a daily newspaper — personal popularity, and the highest respectability of social 
position. 

George M. <^^^^^^^^n^^i:^,-:::^^:t:^-^'''^. 

glittering prospects of fame and fortune have lured many of the brightest and boldest of 
Alabama's young men to Birmingham. The New South has a great attraction for men 
■who want to abandon the past and keep pace with the spirit of the age, and the recog- 
nition of Birmingham as the center of that influence has brought to her streets the 
hope of many of Alabama's towns. In this spirit came George M. Cruikshank, the 
subject of this sketch. 



Biographical. 413 



He was reared and educated at Talladega, and, soon after his maturity, was elected 
principal of the blind department of the State institution for the deaf, dumb, and 
blind. This position he held for six years, when the death of his father compelled him 
to resign, and lead a more active life. He then began the practice of law, and took 
editorial charge of the Reporter, succeeding his father. Soon after this he was appointed 
general administrator of Talladega County, and held that office for two years, when he 
came to Birmingham. He came here to enter journalism professionally, for that pur- 
suit had thrown an enchantment around him too powerful to be resisted. 

Coming here Mr. Cruikshank at once bought an interest in the Chronicle, with F. 
V. Evans, and became its editor, and soon afterward, in partnership with Mr. Ewina 
and Mr. Grace, founded the Evening Chronicle. He has continued to do its editorial 
•work since then. His policy has consistently been to stand close by the people, and to 
urge every line of policy proposed for the good of the people. This policy has made 
the Chronicle very popular at home, and its influence has been recognized in the dis- 
trict and the State. He, with ]Mr. D. B. Grace, now owns the paper, and they are 
devotedly at work adding to its usefulness. 

Mr. Cruikshank is the only son of the late M. H. Cruikshank, of Talladega, who 
was a member of the Confederate Congress, a lawyer of distinction, a fluent writer, and 
a man of stainless honor. 

Few men, just entering the "thirties," have so bright a future as is now promised 
this young editor, who has already won an honorable place in his profession. He is 
well equipped for his life-work with a liberal education and a broad course of reading. 
Owning a well-established paper, he and his partner, Mr. Grace, are accounted two of 
the successful young men of Birmingham. 

ioKa ^itKerspoon ©uBose LHcT'icluSSh 

Carolina. His paternal ancestors were among those Huguenots who, escaping from the 
persecution following the revocation of the edict of Nantes, settled in the " low coun- 
try " of that State. The talents, virtues, and graces of these colonists have given to its 
history a peculiar and enviable fame. The maternal ancestry of Mr. DuBose was the 
AVitherspoon family, who also settled in the "low country," coming from Scotland. 

The generation of both names, contemporary with the American revolution, were 
active partisans of the cause of the colonists, and since that period the records of the 
State attest their participancy in a prominent and honorable service to it. Isaiah DuBose, 
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was among the earliest of the immigrants 
to Marengo County, who brought with him a large number of slaves to clear its forests. 
K. C. DuBose, the father, married Elizabeth Boykin, the second daughter of Hon. John 
D. Witherspoon, a prominent lawyer and statesman of Darlington district. In 1850 he 
moved his family to the canebrakes of Marengo County, where he owned plantations. 

The subject of this sketch was educated, in the classics and higher mathematics, at 
excellent neighborhood schools maintained by the wealthy planters, and by private tutors. 
Added to these opportunities he enjoyed the use of good libraries, and frequent travel 
in dilferent parts of the United States. Arriving at manhood he began the occupation 
of cotton planting in the canebrake, by the labor of slaves inherited. 

Senator Morgan, of Alabama, thus referred to Mr. DuBose's career, in this line of 
business, in a speech delivered from his place in the Senate : " It was but yesterday 
that I had a letter from a gentleman, who is a scientific cotton grower, as well as a prac- 
tical cotton grower, perfectly sober in his habits, thoroughly studious; no more induB- 



4 1 4 Jefferson County. 



trious man in the world than he is, no more intelligent man, I think, that I know of," — 
the example being brought up to prove the profitless character of the business of 
"cotton grower" in the new era. 

When the war between the States opened I\Ir. DuBose was commissioned quarter- 
master of the Canebrake Legion, the strongest and wealthiest independent military- 
organization of the State. When the companies comprising it were separated, and 
mustered into different arms of the regular service, there was no place for his office. 
He, therefore, at once volunteered as a private. Several honorable discharges from the 
ranks, and a continuous line of duty in the recruiting and labor impressment depart- 
ments of the army, comprise his military services. 

From early manhood Mr. DuBose has been a regular or irregular contributor, as 
circumstances allowed, to the newspaper literature of the country. He has been reg- 
ularly engaged on three of the leading papers of Birmingham, and is now on the edito- 
rial stafl" of the Age ; has written a pamphlet of some two hundred pages, descriptive 
of the city ; wrote the paper representing Alabama in the Report of the Federal Bureau 
of Statistics, for 1886, on Internal Commerce ; wrote a large part of this volume ; and 
has been appointed by the family of the great orator and statesman, William L. Yan- 
cey, to prepare his biography for publication. 

Mr. DuBose is a communicant in the Episcopal Church. 

Oi 'T O J (^ In ante-bellum days the canebrake region of 

i(2)a^5)ld. >^OrC(eQ (S^raCe. Alabama was the garden of God's creation. 
Each planter was a king, and his children assumed the airs of royalty itself. Their habit 
of commanding slaves bred within them a feeling of superiority. The people of the 
hill country of Alabama looked with longing upon this paradise. Now the conditions 
are reversed. It was natural that Francis jNI. Grace should turn his eyes in that direc- 
tion when he returned from the Tennessee University to his father's home in Jefferson 
County, near the present site of Birmingham. He began manhood as the pastor of the 
Methodist Church, in Newberne, Greene County, Alabama. While there he wedded 
Mary Borden, who united in mind and person the culture and beauty of Southern 
womanhood. Their first-born was a son, David Borden Grace, the subject of this sketch, 
who was born February 9, 18.55. Here he lived until after the close of the war, when 
his father concluded that, under the condition of affairs then existing in the South, his 
children would imbibe false ideas of life, and grow up in idleness and ignorance, decided 
to accept a professor's chair in the Tennessee University, and removed with his family 
to Knoxville. After receiving a collegiate education at the Tennessee University, Mr. 
Grace was sent to look after his father's farm in Jefferson County. Becoming tired of 
farm life, in the year 1875 he sought a more congenial field, by engaging in the newspa- 
per business in Birmingham, then a town of 2,500 inhabitants, and became connected 
with the Iron Age. He afterward removed to Montevallo, and published the Guide for 
three years. On the 1st of January, 1880, Mr. Grace visited his father, in Tennessee, 
and purchased the Sweetwater Democrat, which he successfully published for four 
years. During his residence in Tennessee, the State debt excitement shook the old vol- 
unteer State from the mountains on the east to the ]\Iississippi on the west. Mr. 
Mr. Grace took a bold stand in favor of the State credit, and opposed repudiation with 
all the zeal in his nature. He had the honor of being placed upon the committee on 
platform in the State convention of 1882, which virtually settled the vexatious question, 
with credit to the State and justice to the bondholders. 

The fame of Birmingham, and its rapid strides began to be noised about in Ten- 
nessee, and Mr. Grace was possessed with a desire to return to the home of his fathers, 



Biographical. 4 1 5 



■where his grandfather and father had edited papers, and where he himself first entered 
the profession to which he has devoted his hfe. In January, 1884, he sold out his inter- 
ests in Tennessee, removed to Birmingham, and aided in founding the Evening Chron- 
icle, of which he is now the successful manager. His subsequent success has demon- 
strated the wisdom of his choice. His energy and devotion to duty places him in line 
■with the enterprising young men, for which Birmingham is noted. He has never 
engaged in any other but the newspaper business, and has made a success of every paper 
he has been connected with. He has won distinction as a graceful writer, and when 
■weightier matters do not press he often enlivens the columns of his paper. In a new 
community like Birmingham, the question is asked after every introduction: "Where 
are you from?" Mr. Grace can say, in the memorable language of Ben Hill on the floor 
of the Senate, when Southern statesmen again graced the halls of Congress after a long 
absence: "I am in the house of my fathers ; my companions are my brethren ; I am 
at home, to stay forever, thank God !" 



iJraaft Q>, Moreftea4, ^ 



President of the National Cotton Planters' Asso- 
ciation of America, was born September 18, 1846, 
at Frankfort, Ky., and comes from one of the most prominent American families. His 
father was Charles S. Morehead, Governor of Kentucky, and a distinguished leader of 
the peace conferences called at the outbreak of the secession movement. Frank C. 
Morehead left school at fifteen years of age to join a Kentucky cavalry organization com- 
ing to the Confederate Arm}'. Subsequently, he entered the Confederate Navy as mid- 
shipman. He remained in active service on the James River until the close of the war. 
For gallant and meritorious conduct he was recommended by General Lee for promo- 
tion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, and was personally complimented by 
his great chieftain. 

The celebrated commercial convention, which assembled at Memphis in 1869, elected 
him, in his twenty-second year, one of its vice-presidents, and immediately upon its 
adjournment he started to Europe, by appointment of the convention, to initiate an 
effort to build up direct trade between the leading commercial countries of the Western 
Continent and the Southern States. In the first flush of manhood Frank C. Morehead 
thus consecrated his wonderful energies and high ability to the New South. The Lon- 
don Post pronounced his speech at Manchester to be a revelation. He made many other 
speeches in other places. The wondrous resources and capabilities of the South had 
been before unheard of. By this veteran of the war of the Old South they were unfolded 
to the world. 

Ten years later, the negro exodus to Kansas startled the entire lower Mississippi 
Valley. In the period of this excitement the Mississippi Valley Cotton Planters' Asso- 
ciation was organized. Its object was to promote a healthy revolution in agriculture, by 
which greater reliance upon machinery, and less upon cotton, should be cultivated. 
Colonel ^Morehead was made vice-president. In 1881 the convention met at Memphis, 
and was enlarged into the National Cotton Planters' Association of America. Colonel 
Morehead was then elected president, and has been each year re-elected. 

He was a prime mover in the Atlanta Exposition of 1SS2 ; he was the projector of the 
World's Fair and the Cotton Centennial ; he was the founder of the Planters' Journal, 
through whose columns both of those inestimable blessings to the South were materi- 
alized. Coming to Birmingham he appears as the president of the Planters' Journal 
and Southern Iron Worker Company, which publishes the three handsome industrial 
journals, elsewhere noticed as already engaged in the widest range of usefulness to the 
growth and prosperity of Alabama and of the South. 



4 1 6 Jefferson Comity. 



Colonel Morehead inherited large landed interests from his father in the cotton 
region of the Mississippi Valley. But his natural place in society is that of a leader of 
great social and industrial organizations and enterprises. Consequently he has not been 
known by personal devotion to agriculture. He is now devoting much thought to the 
Cotton States' Field Contest for 1888, a project of measureless import to Southern agri- 
culture. " 

He is president of the Royal Insurance Company, of Birmingham, elsewhere noticed 
in these pages, and his influence for good in the social life of the city is distinguished. 

"\ M C^'PPr A "T »» the Secretary and Treasurer of the Planters' Jour- 
^,11. iQlUUp^j (§)"'5 nal and Southern Iron Worker Company, is a 
native of Mississippi, and the son of Major J. M. Billups, the eminent and wealthy 
banker of Columbus, Miss. He has inherited in a remarkable degree the great finan- 
cial and business abilities of his father. Mr. Billups' attention was some years ago 
attracted to Birmingham and its tributary districts, and he exposed his confidence in an 
investment in the Corona Coal Company of Walker County, and was elected one of its 
directors. His conspicuously valuable services in this connection contributed largely 
to the successful operation of these celebrated mines. 

Both in New Orleans and Memphis he succeeded in demonstrating the value of this 
coal and is entitled to priority for its introduction in those cities. Mr. Billups is still 
the owner of extensive tracts of coal lands in Walker County. Mr. Billups is now 
actively engaged with Col. F. C. Morehead in enlisting public favor in the cause of the 
Cotton States' Agricultural Field Contest. 

j-n K-> C* 73 «7] A editor and proprietor of the Labor Union, w^as born in 

C£. I d>. C£SLrr|0ri(3LxJ)j caynga county, N. Y., in I842. He was reared upon a 
farm and received a good preliminary education. Upon the outbreak of the civil war 
he was among the first to enlist, joining the Nineteenth Regiment N. Y. V. Infantry, 
and served with that regiment, and the Third N. Y. Artillery, until the close of the war. 
Since that period, and until he started his publication, in the spring of 1886, he devoted 
his time to railroading, and has long been known as one of the most etficiont yardmas- 
ters in the country. During this time he devoted his attention to the organization of 
labor, and has made it a thorough study. Possessing native ability, and quick of per- 
ception, it is not remarkable that he should adapt himself so readily to journalism, in 
which he has achieved a notable success. Captain Edmonds is a ready and forcible 
writer, and is deeply interested in the work he has espoused. 

C^Qi P A O -R -t^ A °^ Roberts & Son, publishers, is a son of Willis and 
VS)"^ariexi) J-gDOeri-^, jyj.^^y (Harvey) Roberts. A sketch of the former 
appears in another portion of this work. 

Our subject was born in Wetumpka, Alabama, June 21, 1856, and at an early age 
entered the printing office of his father, and possessing a natural taste for the business 
he applied himself so energetically that in a few years he was thoroughly conversant 
with the " Art Preservative " in all its various departments. 

There is no better school for youth to acquire a liberal and practical education than 
a large printing office where all classes of work are published, and Mr. Roberts has 
worked himself up from the bottom round of the ladder to become the manager of one 
of the largest and best equipped establishments in the State. 




T. L. HUDGI NS. 



Biographical. 417 



He came to Birmingham in 1875 to assist his father, who had established liis busi- 
ness there in 1872, tlirough his partner, Mr. Franli A. Duval, a skillful printer of long 
experience, who commenced the business with a quarto Gordon press and a small 
assortment of type, establishing the first job office in the city, in a small frame building 
on the south side of the alley between Third and Fourth avenues, on Twentieth street. 

Mr. Duval, besides being a thorough master of his trade was also a fine business 
man, and, upon' opening the office, adopted for a motto : " We have come to stay," and 
the present large e.stablishment of Roberts & Son, on First Avenue, the outgrowth of 
that small beginning, illustrates how applicable was the motto. 

They now have two of the most improved large cylinder pres.ses, three jobbers, and 
a large stock of type and machinery of all kinds necessary to successfully conduct their 
extensive business, which is not confined to the city, but extends over a considerable 
portion of the State. They also do a large amount of work for corporations and county 
offices, competing successfully with the prices from the larger cities. 

Our subject is a young man of business qualifications of merit, and conducts the 
management of the large interest entrusted to him in a thorough business manner, 
■which under his supervision will continue to flourish and advance ^ ith the rapid growth 
of this favored region. 

Mr. Roberts was married in April, 1881, to Miss Florence, daughter of C. H. and 
Hattie (Earl) Perkins, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Three children have been born to tX 
them — Charles, Tod H., and Louisa. Mr, and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Epis- 
copal Church. 



T^rlhnr) I HnHrtinS whose name is permanently associated with many of 
) ' >! J ^ ' ' the solid monied corporations of Birmingham, is a 

native of South Carolina, and was born in what is now Pickens County, February 22, 
1814. His parents, James and Margaret Hudgins, nee Williams, were also natives of 
that State, but, subsequent to the birth of our subject, removed to Harbersham County, 
Georgia, and engaged in farming. 

Our subject remained upon the home farm until sixteen years, and then learned 
the carpenter's trade, which he followed for a period of twelve years. He became a 
resident of Walker County, Georgia, in 1835, where he followed his trade of carpenter 
and building. 

In 1842 he removed to Alabama, and engaged in manufacturing, in Tallapoosa 
County, machinery for crushing gold ore, and subsequently, for two years, was a resi- 
dent and manufacturer of cotton gins near Columbus, Ga., and in 1846 he entered into 
the mercantile business in Talladega County, where he continued nine j'ears, and, sub- 
sequently, for three years at Wetumpka. 

During the late war he was commissioned and served as district collector of the 
income tax from 1862 until the close of the struggle, when he resumed merchandising, 
residing at Vicksburg, Alabama, until 1871. 

January, 1872, he became a citizen of Tuscaloosa, and, for five years, was a perma- 
nent merchant of that city. Recognizing the future of Birmingham he located here 



41 8 Jefferso7i Couiity. 



in 1877, where he has been identified since. Three years he devoted to general mer- 
chandising, and, in April, 1880, established a private banking house, with a capital of 
$80,000, known as T. L. Hudgins & Co. The stockholders were W. S. Mudd, Josiah 
Morris, and T. L. Hudgins. He was elected president of this institution, and when it 
was chartered as the City Bank, with a capital stock of $100,000, he was also given the 
presidency, and managed it very successfully. Mr. Hudgins is also a stockholder and 
director of the First National Bank, which he assisted to organize. 

In 1884 he was one of the organizers of the Birmingham Insurance Company, and 
■was its president until May, 1886, when, on account of failing health, he was forced tO' 
resign, but still retained his interest there. He is a stockholder in the Birmingham 
Iron Works, the New Castle Iron and Coal Company, and has valuable real estate in 
the city. Mr. Hudgins has carved out his own success, by superior business ability 
and strict attention to legitimate enterprises, by which he has acquired a handsome- 
fortune, which he is enjoying, in retirement from active business life. 

Mr. Hudgins was married, in 1834, to Miss Ann D. Meroney, of Greeneville, S. C. 
She died in March, 1879. December 6, 1SS2, he was united to his present wife. Miss 
Lucy, daughter of William Pope, of Talladega County, Alabama. They have two chil- 
dren, Tarlton L., Jr., and Marie S. The family are members of the First Baptist Churchy 

ifl -]- y. [( f\\ oy>\ 0^^ Vice-President of the First National Bank, is a native 
^OILJI O. -I/VC'lllC'lj, of Montgomery, where he was born in 1842. His 
father, John Henley, was for many years a prominent financier and banker of Mont- 
gomery, where he resided until his death, in 18.53. The mother of our subject is a 
descendant of an old North Carolina family. Her maiden name was Miss Marcissa J. 
Molton. 

John C. Henley was educated in the public schools of Montgomery, where he also 
began his business career as a bookkeeper. He came to Birmingham in the early days 
of its history, and has been permanently identified with itsbusiness and social develop- 
ment. He was, for a period of six years, engaged in the real estate business and mer- 
cantile business, but, in 1878, entered the National Bank as bookkeeper, and with that 
institution he remained, being promoted to the position of cashier by diligent and 
earnest ser\'ice. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank, and, upon 
the consolidation of the National Bank and formation of the First National Bank, he 
was chosen vice-president of that staunch institution, and to that position he has been 
repeatedly elected. It is but justice to say that the present flourishing condition of 
this bank is due, in a great measure, to the sound judgment and careful conservative 
course of the directory, which is composed of many of the solid business men of the 
city, and among them there could be made no better selection for the responsible posi- 
tion of vice-president than the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. Henley has never embarked in any speculative ventures, but confined his 
attention solely to the important field of commerce and banking. He ranks high 
among the citizens of Birmingham. 

Mr. Henley was married, in 1876, to Mrs. Annie L. Matthews, the -widow of Wil- 
liam "V. Matthews, a resident of Louisville, Ky., until his death, in 1872. Mrs. Henley 
is a daughter of the late Charles Linn. Two children grace the union, Walter E and 
John C, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Henley are both members of the First Presbyterian Church. 



Biographical. 4 1 9 

©WIf f iam 5i)erney , 7'^^'^^™' °^ ""^ f ""^^^ ^'"'7='' ^"""^'■^.f ^'^"^'"^ 

I (3/ ? character among the young niianciers or the boutn. 

He was born Ulay 27, 1846, in Montgomery, Ala., and is a son of Dr. James and Jane E. 
(Saffold) Berney. His father, a native of Charleston, S. C, was a prominent physician^ 
of Montgomery for more than forty years, where he resided until his death in July,. 
1880. His mother was a native of Dallas County, Alabama, and died in Montgomery 
in October, 1874. 

The subject of this sketch was the fourth of a family of eleven children, six of' 
whom are now living, all residents of (he South. He was reared in Montgomery, 
where he received his preliminary education, which was supplemented bj' a course of 
study at Baltimore, Md., and continued subsequently in Montgomery. In the spring of 
1864, when he was eighteen years of age, he entered the army of the Confederate 
States at Dalton, Georgia, in HallouquLst's Reserve Regiment of Artillery, and served 
as ordnance sergeant until the close of the war. His regiment was in the active ser- 
vice of the Army of the Tennessee, and participated in the severe battles of Dalton, 
Resaca, Atlanta, Jonesboro, and the many other severe engagements of the great 
retreat of General Joseph E. Johnston. After the close of the war he was appointed 
deputy collector of Internal Revenue of the Second District of Alabama, and before 
twenty-one years of age had handled over two millions of dollars of Government funds.. 
He was next appointed cashier for the large cotton commission house of Lehman, Durr 
& Co., which situation he held for a short period, when he removed to Birmingham, in 
1871, as the agent of the South & North Alabama R. R., and after one year's service 
resigned. For one year he was engaged in farming, and subsequently appointed book- 
keeper in the National Bank of Birmingham, which position he ably filled until 1875, 
when he became cashier of that institution. Upon the death of Charles Linn he 
was elected president of the bank, and continued until the consolidation with the City 
Bank, forming the First National Bank, of which he was also elected president. This 
important position he ably filled until February, 1885, when he resigned and organized 
the Central Bank of Birmingham, with which he was connected as the master spirit 
until in February, 1886, when it was reorganized and named in honor of its founder, 
the Berney National Bank, with William Berney as president, its capital stock being 
$100,000, which was subsequently increased to $300,000. This institution is a model 
of its kind, and ranks among the leading monied corporations of the South. 

In all of the responsible positions which he has occupied, Mr. Berney has displayed 
wise and judicious management, and proven himself worthy of any trust. With the 
reputation of a safe financier, of honest integrity and sterling merit, he is destined to 
play an important part in the commercial life of Alabama. 

Mr. Berney is a stockholder in the Iron and Oak and the Royal Insurance Companies 
of Birmingham, and in all enterprises tending to promote the healthy growth of- 
Alabama takes great interest. A Christian gentleman, his hand is ever ready to pro- 
mote the cause of religion ; he is also a firm believer in the public schools, and keeps 
well abreast with the advancement of the age 

In 1868, April 29, Mr. Berney was united in marriage with Miss Lizzie Ta ylor, of 
Mont gomery, a daughter of Dr. W. P. Taylor, of that city. This union has been blessed 
with six children, two of whom are now living, Rebecca D. and Lizzie W. Mr. and 
Mrs. Berney are consistent members of the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham.. 



420 Jefferson Connty. 



President of the First National Bank, and one of the most 
conspicuous among Southern financiers, is a native of the 



¥. J. GarnerGn, 

State, and was born in Montgomery in 1851. His progenitors came from Scotland, 
where the name is familiar to all who read the history of that noted race. They were 
emigrants to the north of Ireland, where his parents were born. His father, Andrew 
Cameron, came to America about 1838, and in 1840 became a resident of Montgomery, 
where he was engaged in the mercantile business until the close of the war, and is still 
in business life near Montgomery. He married, in 1850, Miss Eliza Crozier, of Phila- 
delphia, and has four children living. William J. is the olde.st child and only son. 

Mr. Cameron received the benefits of the best schools of Montgomery, and also one 
year's course at the Norristown (Pa.) Academy. He began his business career in the 
banking house of Josiah Morris, of Montgomery, now one of the most noted financiers 
of the South, and rapidly rose from the position of runner, until, in 1880, he was 
■ appointed cashier of the City Bank of Birmingliam, through the influence of Mr. 
Morris, who had tested him in all positions and knew his sterling attributes. In 1884 
he was appointed cashier of the First National Bank upon its organization, and in Jan- 
uary, 1886, was elected president of that institution. 

Mr. Cameron has been a resident of the city since that period, and is now at the 
head of one of the largest and most stalwart of the banks of Alabama. He is also 
president of the Southern Bridge Company, is secretary and treasurer of the Birming- 
ham Ice Company, secretary and treasurer of the Alabama Construction Company, 
and of the Building and Loan Association, and a director of the Gas and Illuminating 
Company. He is one of the incorporators of the East Birmingham Land Company, and 
was elected treasurer of that corporation. He is one of the most progressive, genial, 
and popular citizens of Birmingham, and has attained his high position among some of 
the leading monied and industrial enterprises through sterling merit and superior execu- 
tive ability. While living in Montgomery Mr. Cameron was orderly sergeant of the 
famous Montgomery Greys, and upon the reorganization of the State troops was made 
major of the Second Infantry, which regiment was in service in tlie famous Posey riot 
in Birmingham in 1883. 

Jlr. Cameron has been twice married ; his first wife was Miss Mary E. Smith, of 
Montgomery. They were married in 1872, and her death occurred in 1881, leaving four 
children — AVm. Smith, Pauline, Andrew C, and Wm. J., Jr. In 1883 he was united 
with ]Miss Mary B., daughter of George R. Ward, of Birmingham. Mr. Cameron is a 
member of the First M. E. Church, South, and his wife of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. 

John \l/ V)07^A President of the Birmingham National Bank, and a fine rep- 
/ ' * \ ' resentative of the pluck and energy of the " New South," is 

a native of Alabama, born in Huntsville in 1857. His parents, Wm. T. and Jane 
(Wheeden) Read, were also natives of this State, and of Scotch-Irish extraction. 

Prior to the war his father was extensively engaged in planting and merchandising, 
but subsequently moved to New Orleans, where he was engaged in the cotton trade 
until his death, in 1885. The mother of our subject resides with him in Birmingham. 

John W. is third of a family of eight children, and was well educated in the 
schools of New Orleans. When a youth he entered the New Orleans National Bank as 
ofiice boy, and won his way, by natural business qualifications and steady determina- 
tion, through every position in the bank, until, in April, 1884, he was appointed cashier of 
the Alabama State Bank, now the Alabama National, and one of the most successful in the 
State. Its prosperity is due, in a great measure, to the enterprise and progressive 



Biograpli ica I. 421 



tendencies of its officers, who are vitally interested in many of the great corporations , 
that are laying a solid foundation for the future great city to rest upon. Mr. Read con- 
tinued with this institution until February, 1887, when he resigned his position and ' 
organized the Birmingham National Bank, which commenced business in April, 1887,, 
with a capital stock of $250,000. Mr. Read was elected president, and H.C. Ansley 
cashier. With an experience from his youth in banking, and possessing the rare 
attributes necessary for large commercial and business transactions, President Read will 
doubtless pilot the Birmingham National to the front ranks of the banks of Alabama, 
He will be ably assisted by the following board of directors, all young and progressive 
business men of Birmingham : B. C. Scott, Jos. Slaton, Sam'l Ullman, John W. Tomlin- 
son, J. H. McCary, E. Solomon, D. M. Drennen, E. C. Mackey, Ashbury Thompson, J. 
L. AVatkins, R. J. Terry, and John W. Read. 

Mr. Read has also made fortunate investments in real estate upon his personal 
account, and is largely interested in various corporations and industrial enterprises. 
In association with John W. Tomlinson he is erecting a handsome and commodious 
business block on First avenue. 

Mr. Read was united in marriage with Miss Adele Urban, of St. Louis, in April, 
1883. They have one child, Elmore. 

r" pir T^inn Cashier of the First National Bank, and son of Charles Linn, its 
\X. \jJ , Liir|r|) founder, is a native of Montgomery, where he was born in 1852. 
His education was commenced in the public schools of his native city, and prosecuted 
for some time in Germany, whither he went in 1865. In 1870 he entered the Univer- 
sity of Illinois, and graduated therefrom in 1872. Following his life as a student he 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Jefferson County for about five years. In 1880 
he became a commercial traveler for a hardware house of Cincinnati, traversing the 
Southern States in the interests of that firm for one year. Soon after he was appointed 
secretary and treasurer of the Linn Iron Works, which position he efficiently con- 
ducted until May, 1882, when he entered the National Bank as exchange clerk and col- 
lector, and rose steadily in position until appointed assistant cashier in January, 1884, 
and in January, 1886, after the consolidation and organization of the First National 
Bank he was elected cashier, and in that responsible position we find him at the pres- 
ent writing. Mr. Linn is one of the most faithful and deserving of the officers of the 
First National, in which he has large interests, and to which he gives his best service. 
He possesses the qualification of being rapid and accurate in the discharge of his official 
duties, together with safe and conservative views as to the management of the large in- 
terests in which he has a substantial voice. He is ever progressive, and is identified 
with many of the prominent industries that are fast multiplying in this section. 

He is secretary and treasurer of the Southern Bridge Company, and a director of 
the Birmingham Gas and Illuminating Company, and secretary and treasurer of the 
East Birmingham Land Company, besides being a large real estate owner. 

jQ 1-5. r^-.L.'L— Cashier of the Berney National Bank, is a young man of 
(J' -L-'* N-i^^*-^w,Oj much promise. He is a native of Alabama, born March, 
ISoi), and a son of Hon. Thomas and Lucy Thomas Cobbs, natives of North Carolina and 
Virginia, respectively. His father is a celebrated lawyer and jurist, a full sketch of 
whom appears in the biographies of the Bench and Bar. 

Our subject was reared in Livingston County, where his primary education was 
commenced. Later he entered the celebrated Eastman Comercial College, located at 



42 2 Jefferson County. 



Poughkeepsie, New York, and was graduated therefrom in 1874. He Immediately 
engaged in commercial life, and for a number of years was engaged in office work in 
Livingston, Mobile, and other cities. 

In March, 1883, he came to Birmingham, and was engaged by the National Bank as 
individual bookkeper. "Upon the organization of the First National Bank he was made 
general bookkeeper and receiving teller. A vacancy occurring in the Central Bank in 
July, 1885, caused by the resignation of Saflfold Berney, who was its cashier, Mr. Cobbs 
was elected to fill that important office, and upon its reorganization and change of name 
he was elected to the position which he now holds. Mr. Cobbs is a typical representa- 
tive of the young men of the New South, who have caught the progressive spirit of the 
times. He fills the position efficiently, is courteous and obliging, and one of the most 
popular citizens of the Magic City. 

Mr. Cobbs is interested in some of the leading corporations, and has been a member 
of the city council. 

He was married in 1880 to Miss Susie B. Little, of Sumter County, Alabama. They 
have two children— Carrie L. and J. Berney. 

The family are members of the Episcopal Church, Mr. Cobbs being secretary of 
the vestry. 

(T^L, y,;_i; _ „ 'tr n^riol/j-n '^ ^ native of Germany, and was born in 
'Olll iijLIClll X. olwlt-DLC.lL Wurtemburg, in 1830. He obtained his 
education in the common schools of that country, and at the age of fifteen, or in the 
year 1845, emigated to America, and landed on American shores at New Orleans. Being 
well grown for his age he joined the Alabama Rifles, a volunteer regiment, and went as 
private to the Mexican war in 1846. 

In the fall of 1871 he came to Birmingham. After following his trade for awhile he 
went into the mercantile business, which he successfully followed until January, 1886, 
and then organized the Jefferson County Savings Bank, of which he was made president. 
This institution was incorporated by himself and two sons— Eugene, who is cashier, and 
Charles. These three incorporated the bank with a capital of $50,000. The charter 
was granted on the 2d of November, 1885, and the building put up in that year, and 
actual business operations commenced November, 1885. The first year's experience was 
60 satisfactory that, at its close, the capital stock was increased to $150,000. 

Mr. Enslen is a Master Mason and a member of the I. 0. O. F., and belongs to the 
Baptist Church. 

r^ ■"! ppnAPon was born in Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1858. He 

Cf LLgeae ©7. C£ QXSDI en ^^,^^ educated there, and came with his father to 
Birmingliam in 1871, and was bookkeeper in his father's store, as well as a member of 
the firm as long as they continued in the mercantile business. 

In 1877 he attended a session of the Poughkeepsie Business College, in New York 
State. Upon the organization of the Jefferson County Savings Bank he became the 
cashier, and continues to hold the position with great satisfaction to all who are inter- 
ested in it. 

No young man in Birmingham has served a more honorable career than he, and few 
have a more successful future lying before them. 

He was married in 1878 to Miss Delia W. Evans, of LaGrange, Ga. He is the father 
of three children— Juha, Eugene F., Jr., and Minnie Gip. 

Mr. and Mrs. Enslen are members of the Baptist Church. 



424 Jcjjason Comity. 



r^Ohn ^\\ 'vKc^AA'io °"® °^ ^^^ most successful business men in Birming- 
/ ^H ' ham, is a native of Dayton, Marengo County, Alabama, 

where he was born in October, 1849. His father's ancestors were of P'rench extraction. 
His mother, who was a granddaughter of General Winchester, of Kevolutionary fame, 
and a sister of tlie gallant General E. W. Rucker, of the Confederate Army, is of Scotch- 
Irish descent. The parents were natives of Alabama and Tennessee respectively, and 
were married in the latter State in 1846, but immediately removed to Marengo County, 
Alabama. In 1859 his father's death occurred, during a typhoid-fever epidemic, 
leaving the mother with four children. John B. was the eldest of the number, and 
received a good education, first as a pupil of the celebrated Henry Tutwiler, and from 
thence he went to the University of Mississippi. Before gi-aduation he was called, when 
only seventeen years of age, from his studies to assume the management of an estate 
valued at over .$350,000. The legislature relieved him from the disabilities of non-age 
to allow him to assume his responsible trust. These large interests he successfully 
controlled until the disastrous year of 1873, and from that period until 1883 continued 
the uneven struggle. 

He purchased his first of piece property in Jefferson County, in 1883, at Wood's 
Station, which he sold within seventeen days at a profit of $1,000, hi.s entire capital 
being less than one thousand dollars of borrowed money. 

He intuitively recognized the magnificent natural beauty of the Southern High- 
lands for suburban homes, and purchased twenty acres, composing the most desirable 
locations, and began developing the property, which is now fiuely improved and dotted 
with some of the finest suburban residences in the State. He still owns considerable 
lands in that portion of the city, which is being improved rapidly. 

His speculative operations in the business portion of the city have been marvelous, 
and the execution of them rapid and masterly. A few of them are cited to preserve for 
posterity some idea of what one man accomplished in the central business portion of 
Birmingham. His active mind saw at a glance that Morris Avenue would become, by 
reason of its freight facilities, the center of the wholesale trade, and he accordingly 
purchased from the Elyton Land Company 975 feet between the railroad and the 
avenue, paying $30 per front foot. In eight months he had sold all at a profit of over 
$125,000. 

His next venture was on First Avenue, between 21st and 25th streets, purchasing 
650 feet from the Elyton Land Company at $75 per front foot, and choice corner lots 
from diflerent individuals. He then conceived the idea of erecting a magnificent hotel 
to improve the property, to cost $220,000. After months of planning the desired loca- 
tion was secured by the purchase of the site of Dr. Caldwell's handsome private 
residence at a cost of $20,000, the hotel to bear the latter's name, and the Elyton Land 
Company to take $50,000 of the stock, and the balance divided between Mr. Boddie and 
seven other prominent capitalists. This bold stroke of policy cleared for our subject 
$80,000 on the sale of his lots, and secured the erection of the finest hotel in Alabama, 
in which he is a large stockholder. 

Desiring a permanent investment, he decided upon the southwest corner of First 
Avenue and 20th street. After several months of negotiations, with an eye single to 
becoming the sole possessor of this most eligible business lot, he l>ecame the owner of 
the entire lot, 100x100 feet, paying for it $77,500. This lot is now conceded to be worth 
$125,000. Mr. Boddie intends this lot to be a permanent investment, and will erect upon 
it a handsome business block, consisting of five stories, with elevators and all of the 
superior improvements of the age, to live as an enduring monument of his success for 
many years. These are but fair samples of his many successful operations. He also 



Bio graph teal. 423 



TTTO A Ci ^r^ — A is a native of Louisiana, and was born in 1840. His 

® no ma& y$). 1S)^0 r^ A ^^^^^^^ 2. S. Lyons, was of English-German parent- 
age, and his mother, Mary E. Ranoldson, Scotch. The former was a native Pennsyl- 
vanian, and lived near Philadelphia, and the latter of Fredericksburg, Va. They were 
married in Louisiana. 

His father traveled extensively, but finally settled in Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, 
.studied law, and practiced there until his death, which took place in 1852. During his 
life he was district attorney. There were three children born to them. 

Thomas was reared in Louisiana, and attended school until fourteen years of age.and 
then went to Hanover College, Virginia, and subsequently took a course at theUniversity 
of Virginia. After this he traveled for two years in Europe, and on returning to Amer- 
ica in 1861, joined the Confederate forces under General E. Kirby Smith, and served as 
staff officer. Later he was sent to Stevenson's Division, and later yet served on the 
stafl' of General Seth Barton, in the Army of Northern Virginia. He was also in Ken- 
tucky with General Smith, and was in the defense of Vicksburg against Grant's siege. 
He was exchanged, along with that garrison, and rejoined the Army of Virginia, being 
assigned to Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps, and subsequently to Ewell's corps. 
He was a participant in the last fight of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Sailor's Creek. 
In Lee's retreat he was taken prisoner two days before Appomattox. He was in the 
Kentucky campaign ; Pemberton's operations around Vicksburg ; at Champion Hills, 
Cold Harbor; the fights on the south side of the James River; and finally at the siege of 
Richmond. Among his military experiences was three months a prisoner on Johnson's 
Island. 

After the war he returned to Louisiana, and settled at his old home. Having studied 
the civil law in France, he began the practice in 1867. He continued the practice until 
elected judge in 1874, in which position he served two years, and also two terms in the 
State Legislature, beginning with the year 1876, and was then elected to the constitu- 
tional convention in 1879. The constitution then formed is still the fundamental law 
■of the State. 

Judge Lyons, in the meantime, had acquired an interest in the Clinton and Port 
Hudson Railroad, which he still holds. 

In the year 1884 he came to Birmingham, and invested money in the Alabama 
State Bank, then recently organized, and in the following year came to reside 
permanently. 

Since his residence here. Judge Lyons has been among the most progressive and 
.successful of Birmingham's truly progressive men. He has large interests, and is con- 
.nected prominently with some of the most important enterprises in the city. A men- 
tion of these will suffice to convey the most intelligent and convincing opinion of this 
.assertion. He is vice-president of the Alabama National Bank; a director of the 
Birmingham Street Railway Company ; director and treasurer of the East Lake Land 
Company ; treasurer of West End Improvement Company ; president of the Central 
Trust Company of Alabama, and, besides having large real estate interests, also owns 
stock in some of the strongest companies in Birmingham. 

Judge Lyons is a member of the Knights of Pythias; Knights of Honor; of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and vestryman in the Episcopal Church. 

He was married in 1872 to Miss Mary Norwood, a native of Feliciana Parish, 
Louisiana. Judge Lyons resides on the South Highlands, one of the most picturesque 
isuburbs of Birmingham. 




{^(J^ c^ ^)0^^^cu 



Biographical. 427 



owns much valuable real estate, and is interested in various enterprises, among which 
we name: Sloss Steel & Iron Company, North Birmingham Land Company, North 
Highlands Company, Coalburg Coal & Coke Company, Central Land & Improvement 
Company, in most of which he is a director. Mr. Boddie has done more to advertise 
Birmingham and the advantages of Alabama as a .safe investment for capital than any 
other one man. Recognizing the force of placing information abroad, and keeping it 
before the people, he has been liberal in the extreme sense of that word. 

The ''New South," one of the finest illustrated monthly magazines in the South, 
and one that is doing more to attract capital to the South than any other publica- 
tion in the State, owes to Mr. Boddie the fact that it is on a substantial basis to- 
day, and without his timely assistance it would probably have sufTered the fate of many 
other such periodicals. 

Since coming to Birmingham he has paid off a large indebtedness contracted prior 
to coming here, has aided liberally all demands of charity and religious denominations, 
and has accumulated in a few years a fortune, which is fast increasing, and that in many 
examples would require a lifetime to secure. 

Socially he is most pleasing, and ever ready to extend to the visitor any informa- 
tion and all of the courtesies native to a Southern gentleman. He resides in a finely- 
appointed home, one of the finest and first built on the Highlands, which he is continu- 
ally beautifying by all the appliances of decoration, furniture, and art. 

Mr. Boddie was married in 1879 to Miss Annie Ferryman, of Mobile. She died in 
1883, leaving one child, John B., Jr. January 21st, 1885, he was united to a second 
wife, Miss Jennie Cleves, of Memphis, Tenn. One child has been born to them, Mary. 

They are both members of the M. E. Church, South. 

"O -l-^y,!. jO -v-_ ,' o /-.y>i is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, andltv'as born Sep- 
1\^0ULI L ^CllLii:)UlL tember 12, 18.53. His father, William H. Jemison, 
was a native of Georgia, and his mother a Tennesseean by birth. Her maiden name 
was Elizabeth Patrick, and she came of a good old Pennsylvania family. The former 
was a large planter in Tuscaloosa County for thirty years, in ante-bellum days. 

There were nine children in the family, of whom the subject of this sketch is the 
second oldest son. He was educated at the University of Alabama, which, from its 
founding, has been located at Tuscaloosa. He graduated in the law department of the 
same institution in 1872, but never followed the profession of law. He engaged in the 
hardware trade, and in 187-1 was admitted as a member of the firm of J. Snow & Co., at 
that time and ever since the largest establishment of the kind in Tuscaloosa. He held 
a half interest in it for ten years, and for the whole time conducted a very successful 
business. In September, 1884, realizing that Birmingham was a place more congenial 
to his progressive views, he came here to make it his home, and ever since has been 
a resident of the city. There is no young man in Birmingham who has shown himself 
more alive to its active, wide-awake life than he. He first began business as a broker 
in various lines of the grocery trade, and continued in it until June, 1886. He then, 
sold out his interests, and became extensively interested in banking, real-estate trans- 
actions, and insurance. 

In 1885 he was made vice-president of the Berney National Bank, and in 
March, 1886, took the leading part in organizing the Iron and Oak Insurance Company, 
with a capital stock of 35100,000, and was elected president of it. In May, 1S86, he 
formed the East Lake Land Company, with a capital stock of $200,000, and was also 
elected president of it. The Birmingham Land and Loan Company was another cor- 

24 



428 Jefferson Cotmty. 



porate enterprise in which he, with several other gentlemen, combined to form, with a 
capital stock of $50,000. He is a director in this company. Thus it will be seen that 
Mr. Jemison, since his residence here, has been as active and as thoroughly enterpris- 
ing as the most progressive of its citizens. 

Mr. Jemison was married in 1876 to Miss Eugenia R. Sorsby, a daughter of Dr. N. 
T. Sorsby, of Greene County, Alabama. He has four children — Robert S., John S., 
Annie H., and Elizabeth P. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jemison are members of the Episcopal 
Church. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor. 

ZyT ^ ^Xyy» o TI ^^ would be hard to find a fairer illustration of the possi- 
• JwClbLi I IcLlL. bilities of the Birmingham district, abetted by intelligent 
and active enterprise, than the career this modest gentleman affords. He is the 
possessor of a handsome fortune, and he could hardly be less indebted to any of the 
fictitious causes that thrust wealth upon men. A scientific education, giving him a 
faith in this wonderful country, such as is hardly to be matched among its largest 
operators; a quick eye for commercial quantities, and dauntless energy in the organiza- 
tion of developing forces, are the factors that have made Mr. Eastman one of the con- 
spicuously successful men of Birmingham. He was born near New Orleans in 1840, 
being the eldest son of Mo.ses Eastman, M. D. 

Puritan and cavalier sources, both of high quality, contributed to make his fam- 
ily, various of his ancestors having been numbered among the prominent Americans of 
their day. Moses Eastman, reared in Massachusetts, and educated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege and the far-famed Philadelphia Medical College, began the practice of his jirofes- 
sion and the accumulation of wealth on the Tchfuncta River, in Louisian.i, but soon 
after moved to New Orleans, where lie filled many important positions. He was, for 
many years, president of the New Orleans Swamp Land Draining Board. This office 
had control and direction of very large funds in the interest of New Orleans. He was 
repeatedly an alderman and legislator. The mother of E. Eastman was the daughter of 
General D. B. Morgan. General Morgan married Miss Jliddleton, of the Charleston 
district, South Carolina, moved to the Mississippi River, and located in Concordia Par- 
ish, Louisiana, before the acquisition of that State by the United States, where the 
mother of Captain Eastman was born. General Morgan was a man of mark in both a 
civil and military capacity. He commanded the right wing of General Jackson's army 
at the battle of New Orleans of 181.5, and afterward served in the senate of the State of 
his adojition for more than twenty years, and was also a member of the convention 
that framed the first constitution. General Jackson, in token of his appreciation of 
General Morgan, named the fort at the entrance of Mobile Bay after him. 

The wife of General Morgan was a Middleton, of the famous South Carolina fam- 
ily, which embraced, in the preceding generation, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and also a minister plenipotentiary to the court of Russia. 

E. Eastman was educated at the Kentucky IMilitary Institute, and, at the break- 
ing out of the late war, entered the army of the Confederacy as second lieutenant 
of the Louisiana Regulars, and served throughout the entire war. He wiis on the 
staff of General Pillow at the battle of Fort Donelson. Before the end of the war 
Lieutenant Eastman was made a captain of artillery. The war over, Captain East- 
man, like many other Southerners, left the United States for South America. After 
many years of adventure there, he returned to his countrj' and began the occupa- 
tion of inspecting and locating iron-ore lands, in which important work he soon 
became an expert. Coming to Birmingham he entered the service of the Sloss Fur- 





^/"^^^i-^^ 



Biographical. 43 1 



nace Company, and for several years inspected and located lands for purchase by 
that great corporation. He made his fortune by judicious purchases of mineral 
lands on his own account. In 18S0 he formed a copartnership with Mr. R. D. 
■Smith. Messrs. Smith & Eastman bought about three hundred acres of land at 
Irondale, on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, about six miles north of Bir- 
mingham. All the trunk lines tributary to Birmingham, coming through a neigh- 
boring gap in the mountains, find there the first point of contact on this land. It 
is otherwise phenomenally situated, as the different constituents of pig iron are 
within a mile or two. Messrs. Smith & Eastman also purchased two thousand 
acres of the famous twenty-feet vein of Red Mountain ore. With the above prop- 
erty, and in conjunction with some of the wealthiest gentlemen in Pennsylvania, a 
company has been organized, with a capital of $1,500,000, for the purpose of manu- 
facturing iron and .steel. The company will commence immediately the erection of 
two one-hundred-ton blast furnaces. Smith <& Eastman also purchased large boilies 
of land in the suburbs of Birmingham, viz : the " Village Creek " lands, and the 
" Forest City " lands. These two bodies of land are not more than two miles from 
the center of Birmingham, and embrace about three hundred and fifty acres. They 
have been laid off in streets and avenues, and are now regarded as part of the citv. 
Messrs. Smith &. Eastman are respectively presidents of the companies having con- 
trol of the.se lands. 

Captain Eastman is also one of the incorporators of the Birmingham Tannery 
and Land Company, with a capital of $250,000, ami (jne of the leaders in establish- 
ing enterprises that will benefit this section. 

RoKorh n Qn^it'h '® ^ member of the firm of Smith & Eastman, ore miners 
V N ' • / and stockholders in the Birmingliam Furnace and Manu- 

facturing Company, and operators in lands and lots near and in Birmingham. The tivm 
owns some 2,000 acres of ore land.s, believed to be as rich as any in the State. They also 
own a considerable body of very valuable land one and a half miles from the city. 

Mr. Eastman, as is elsewhere in this volume narrated, is a native of New Orleans. 
Mr. Smith is a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he was born in 1839, the sou of 
Robert D. and Ann McClure Smith, the father a native of Pennsylvania, and the 
mother of Kentucky. The father was a preacher of the Methodist denomination. 
After some years spent in the general work of the ministry he was appointed Indian 
missionary. 

Robert D. Smith had an adventurous life before coming to Birminghai^ and his 
•opportunities for acquiring knowledge of men and affairs had been very extensive' 
and varied. Arriving here he was admirably prepared to disciiminate Ijctween and 
select from the many invitations to men of enterprise offered by the local i-esources. 

He had been taught in the public schools of Vicksburg and at the college of 
Salem, Ohio. In 1856, when in his seventeenth year, he graduated in the literary 
course at Miami College, Ohio. In the winter of 1857 he graduated at Bryant & Strat- 
ton's Business College, of Cleveland, Ohio. Thus, well prepared, in his eighteenth year, 
Mr. Smith began an active business career, which has ripened into wealth and aftlurnce. 
Going from college to Nebraska, when that territory was the object of great political 
excitement, he first engaged as clerk of a river steamer, the Omaha. Ill-health forced 
him to abandon this occupation after six months' service. Returning to the JMississippi 
Valley, he engiiged in Illinois and Ohio in the land abstract business, in insurance and 
in railroad work. In 1869 he was engaged in the grain and lumber business at Thomp- 
. Bon, 111. The same year he returned to his native State and engaged in cotton planting 



43 2 Jefferson County. 



near Yazoo City. This he abandoned, after one year's experience, and became circuit 
clerk. Tliis place he held for five years, when he bought the Castillian Springs, Miss., 
and kept up the establishment as a watering-place and pleasure resort for several years. 
At Macon and Meridian, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., he engaged in keeping hotels for 
several years. After finishing work as contractor on the Kew Orltans & North 
Eastern Railroad, he determined to come to Birmingham. This purpose was executed 
in 1S83, and with the happy results already explained. 

March, 1SG4, Mr. Smith married Miss Mary J., daughter of Judge McLean, of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. They have five children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the 
Metliodist Episcopal Church. He is a member in good standing of the Free and 
Accepted Masons. 

JD {X\)\A/\ ^^^ born at Elyton in the year 1859, and is a son of the late Judi- 
' \ ' \ \ W'm. S. Mudd, whose sketch appears in the history of the Ben 

and Bar. His studies were commenced in the school of Elyton, and subsequent 
pursued at the University of Alabama, from which institution he was graduated in 187 
He began his business career in the City Bank of Birmingham, but was forced, by i 
health, to abandon that position. He then embarked in business in the crockery tradt 
which he successfully prosecuted for a period of tliree years. In September, 188.5, he 
opened the first office in Birmingham devoted exclusively to the sale of stocks and bonds. 
In this field j\Ir. Mudd has achieved merited success, and his business has a.ssumec 
large proportions, and is increasing daily with the development of this favored section. 
He is one of the mo.st industrious jind popular of the many young business men, 
and is connected with many of the large monied corporations of Jefferson County, and 
he is ever ready to assist and promote enterprises of substantial merit. He is a worthy 
descendant of several of the best known and honored famihes of the State. 

Mr. jMudd was united in marriage, October 3, 188.'!, to Miss Eula Anglin, of Bir- 
mingham, and their union has been blessed with a son, \Vm. S. Mr. Mudd is a mem- 
ber of tlie Knights of Pythias, and a consistent member of the Episcopal Church. Mrs. 
Mudd is a Presbyterian. 

/nauriee B. Sl^rocKmortop ;;:^^rl"rt^^frS;t^t^ 

and always has been the Queen City, in point of refinement, culture, and progress of 
its people, -jf the State of Kentucky. 

Colonel C. S Throckmorton, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of 
Bourbon County, Kentucky, and belonged to its best families. His mother, Miss 
Vine Ward, was a native of Louisville, and a daughter of Robert J. Ward, one of the 
most noted Kentuckians of his time. 

His parents moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, in his early childhood, and it as 
here that he was reared and received a part of his education. When he had made 
sufficient progress he entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Lexington, 
Kentucky. This was the home for many years of two of the most distinguished citi- 
zens in American history, Henry Clay and Thomas Marshall. Young Throckmorton 
graduated in the year 1874, and in the fall of the same year accepted a position with the 
Southern Express Company, and rose rapidly to sustain important relations to the com- 
pany. He remained with them continuously to October 1.5, 1882, and was agent at 
Birmingham from May 20, 1880, to October 15, 1882. He then became ticket agent 
for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at this point, and discharged its duties with 



Biographical. 435 



great satisfaction both to the public and to the company, until his resignation, 
December 28, 1885. He then engaged in the insurance and real estate business. 
He realized the great opportunity that these fields presented for the amassing of a large 
fortune, and saw that they paved the way to the highest business distinction. He was 
not slow in grasping the advantages of the situation, and has very rapidly come to the 
front among the wealthiest men of Birmingham. During the last year and a hail' he 
has made, from the rapid rise in values of real estate, what would be considered a splen- 
did fortune as the reward of a lifetime of most uninterrupted success. He has always 
had the most implicit faith in Birmingham, and was ready to invest and take chances 
on this belief, while many others would hesitate, and lend a ready ear to the voice of 
over caution. He has lived to see his hopes realized far sooner than he had expected. 
To such truly active and wide-awake young men as Mr. Throckmorton it is not all 
surjjrising that the Magic City of the New South should be so lavish of her favors. He 
has achieved that standing, socially and financially, which places him among the leading 
men of this progressive center, and his career is encouragement alike to those younger 
and older than himself. He is yet in the heyday of young manhood, and the future 
holds out to him the brightest promises, and it is needless to predict that greater tri- 
umphs await him in the near future. 

Jlr. Throckmorton was married November 16, 1882, to Miss Florence E., 
daughter of Colonel Alburto Martin, of Elyton, who was for many years one of the 
truest and most distinguished citizens of Jefferson County. 

Mr. Throckmorton's home is one of the most beautifully situated in Birmingham, 
an<l is the crowning prize of his greatest happiness. He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity. 

William A Hcin/llow '^^® vtxe^ of to-day in the States of the South are, per- 
VKIUldlll M. ndllUlOy. -^^^^^ lending less energy to the study of the abstract 
theories of political government than the devotion to this theme which so distinguished 
their ancestry of a single generation in the past ; but in all measures of material devel- 
opment, upon whose foundations the superstructure of national prosperity and glory is 
erected, they tower like giants in the federation of States. Not despising the fortuitous 
■circumstances of honorable birth and illustrious lineage, they simply resort to more 
enlarged and more practical methods of advance in uoble enterprise and the acqui- 
sition of fortune. 

Distinguished among those who are notable types of the changes which in recent 
years have been wrought in this section of the Union, the subject of this biographical 
monogram, the Hon. William A. Handley, occupies a most conspicuous and enviable 
position. 

Descended from a long line of remarkable ancestry, Mr. Handley has wrought out 
for him.self a career, in his chosen calling, which none of his illustrious prototypes have 
eclipsed. The original name of the family from which he has sprung was Ainlighe, 
which, upon the emigration of his remote progenitors from Spain to Ireland, was trans- 
lated into O'Handley, and subsequently there and in America to the patronymic known 
to this age and generation. The Spaniard Ainlighes located in that part of the Emerald 
Isle which was anciently known as Kind Dofa, or O'Handley County. Thcie, as 
O'Handleys, they became wealthy and politically powerful, and in the fourth century 
one of its scions ascended the throne of Ireland. (See Annals of Ireland, vol. 3, p. 171.) 
In A. D. 139G the family sustained disastrous reverses in battle, the sons of Lord John 
Handley having been slain on the field, yet the proud race lost none of its prestige 
until the conquest of Ireland by the English. That they were powerful, valiant, and 



436 Jefferson Couttty. 



illustrious military leaders is abundantly attested by their magnificent and costly tombs. 
(See Annals of Ireland, vol. 4, p. 1174.) 

Three sons, John, James, and William, descended from this lordly line, emigrated 
to America during our colonial period. Of these, two settled in Virginia and the other 
in Pennsylvania. One of those who had made a new home in the Old Dominion soon 
returned to Ireland, and located in the city of Dublin. From this ancestor descended 
the Hon. John Handley, now a ■mo.st distinguished jurist of Pennsylvania, resident of 
Scranton, in that State. The Handley who originally located in Pennsylvania subse- 
quently removed to Virginia, and made a home near Fairfax Court House, a descendant 
of whom, Colonel William Handley, served most gallantly on the staff of General John 
C. Breckinridge during the late war between the States. 

One of the Handley brothers who came originally to Virginia located near Norfolk, 
and from him was descended the distinguished gentleman whose career is the theme of 
this sketch. William A. Handley was born in Heard County, Georgia, December 15, 
18.34, and is a son of John Kandoljihand Xancy T. Handley. John Randolph Handley 
is a native of Burke County, Ga., and wa.s named after the great statesman of Roanoke^ 
at his suggestion, that gentleman being an intimate friend of his father, who was a Vir- 
ginian. Mrs. Handley, the mother of our subject, was a native of Georgia. Her 
maiden name was Nancy T. Formby, and she was married in January, 1834, to John 
Randolph Handley, who had previou.sly moved to Georgia from his native State, Vir- 
ginia. Some time after this marriage they removed to Randolph County, Ala., where 
they still reside near the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. 

William A. Handley, though born in Heard County, Georgia, from childhood was- 
reared and educated in Randolph County, Ala., and it may be added with great pro- 
priety that Randolph County never had a better friend or a more enterprising citizen. 

Young Handley, though deprived of early educational advantages, was ambitious, 
and determined to give his aspirations a high aim, and to see that they should be 
gratified, despite every early obstacle that impeded his advancement. Possessing rare 
native talent, and unu.sual energy and industry, he has most successfully triumphed 
over poverty and those other depressing difficulties which environed his youth. 

Early in boyhood he became engaged in mercantile pursuits, having commenced hia 
career while scarcely more than eight years of age, and in early manhood became the 
owner of the establishment in which he had been originally employed. This business 
he continued to assiduously pursue until the tocsin of war sounded throughout the land 
in 1861. Animated by the lofty spirit of pure patriotism, and a martial ardor inherited 
from his gallant sires of former centuries, he organized the "John T. Heflin Highland- 
ers," and gallantly led this intrepid command to the service of his native land. After 
two years of active, perilous and efficient duty in camp and field, he was called into the 
civil ser\-ice of the Confederacy, for which he was peculiarly fitted by his previous 
training. In this position he displayed superior qualifications, and gave abundant evi- 
dence of his ability, zeal, and usefulness. 

After the war cloud had rolled away, Mr. Handley found him.self possessed of noth- 
ing but an old and dusty stock of gootls, and some $25,000 or $30,000 of accounts and 
promissory notes and securities, rendered well nigh valueless by the disaster of the war. 
He was largely indebted at this time to ante-bellum creditors at the North. To his 
honor, bd it said, he never pressed the collection of a dollar from one of his stricken and 
ruined neighbors and debtors. In this situation he attempted farming, but made a failure 
in that vocation. After two years he closed out his property at public sale, and with 
the proceeds he went to New York and succeeded in settling with his creditors. They 
were generous, and assured him of credit should he again embark in the business of 



Biographical. 439 



merchandise. At this time he was about tliirty years of age and without a dollar. He 
borrowed $1,000, however, and opened a small general merchandise business at Roanoke, 
Alabama. 

In the year 1870 the Democratic party nominated and elected him to the Federal 
House of Representatives, where he served throughout the Forty-second Congress. To 
perform this service he sold out his mercantile interests. As to his career in Congress 
it may be truly said, that it was as successful as his most sanguine friends could have 
desired or anticipated, and the congressional district which he represented was never 
more ably or satisfactorily served. 

Retiring from congressional life, Mr. Handley repurchased his old business at Roan- 
oke, and began work with renewed energy and added zeal. The firm of Moore, Manley 
& Handley was at once organized, continuing business at Roanoke for eight years, doing 
the largest and most successful business ever conducted in the county. In the year 
1881 J. D. and B. F. Moore came to Birmingham to establish a branch house, dealing in 
hardware and machinery, which, since then, these gentlemen have conducted with such 
skill as to make it one of the leading features of Birmingham's commercial prosperity. 
The Roanoke firm of Moore, ]\Ianley & Handley, after several years, was dissolved, and 
the new firm of Manley, Haudley & Horn.sby was organized. Their business continues 
to be large and prosperous. 

Mr. Handley commenced his transactions in real estate in Birmingham, for Moore, 
Moore & Handley iu February, 1882, buying lots 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the corner of First Ave- 
nue and Twentieth Street. This property is now one of tlie most valuable pieces in the 
city, the whole of which is regarded as worth one-fourth of a million of dollars. A part of 
it has been sold, and on that part now held by them are the magnificent Moore, Moore & 
Handley building.s. Mr. Handley is not only a large dealer in real estate for his firm, 
but also on his own individual account. Outside of his Birmingham interests he has 
ample capital, and holds immense real estate interests in East Alabama. 

Although Mr. Handley but lately connected himself with the interests of the IVIagic 
City, he ranks among its foremost men — distinguished by broad-minded, sagacious, 
and successful enterprise. A handsome property which he holds is at least a half mile 
of front feet on Powell Avenue, which, at a minimum valuation, is worth $600,000. 

No man in Birmingham has more unlimited faith in the greatness of its destiny. 

In evidence of this, he said to a purchaser of a lot a few months ago — the same being 
182J feet front, and ofTered at about $30,000 — "Go to San Francisco, remain there two 
years, return and give me the amount of purchase money and interest, and I will pay 
your expenses and assure you an additional profit of as much silver as two mules can 
conveniently haul!" Has his faith been justified? It has — for that identical property 
to-day is worth $700 per front foot, and the profit in silver would amount to as much as 
four mules could " conveniently haul." This astonishing increase has been effected in 
eight months ! In two years what will not be the wonderful increase? 

Mr. Handley was married November 8, 1859, to Miss Adelia A. Mitchell, daughter 
of Mr. Peter Mitchell, of Randolph County. The family of Mitchell is among the most 
respectable and powerful in Georgia. As a maiden Mrs. Handley was winsome and 
fair to look upon, and even now retains a matronly reminder of the loveliness of her 
youth. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. From this union 
have sprung two children, a son and a daughter. The latter, Miss Lola, who was edu- 
cated at Roanoke Institute, and at Augusta College, Staunton, Va., was married on 
June 23, 1882, to Mr. J. E. Mann, of Georgia, a gentleman of a highly polished and 
greatly respected family of that State. This daughter is a lovely type of her sex, and 
"the hand that hath made her beautiful hath also made her good," for she is a consist- 



440 Jeffersoji Coiinty. 



ent member of the Baptist Church at Roanoke. The son, Guy H. Handley, is an ele- 
gant young gentleman, just crossed the threshhold of manhood, and thoroughly educa- 
ted at Roanoke Institute and the University of Alabama. 

While Mr. Handley is not a member of any church, he is a gentleman of high 
moral character, of great benevolence, a firm believer in Christianity, and one who hiia 
established a deserved fame for charity and generosity toward all good works. The 
Roanoke Institute is a monument to his interest in the cause of education, while the 
laeautiful churches and parsonages of Roanoke attest his active zeal in the promotion of 
religion. Indeed, it may be said that to his exertions the town of Roanoke owes its 
present prestige as the thriving and growing center of a rapidly developing business. 

Happily for Alabama, Mr. Handley is yet in the vigorous prime of a useful and 
promising manhood. May it be many years before the marble is torn from the rugged 
mountain-side upon which the chisel of well-merited eulogy shall inscribe the epitaph that 
will commemorate his splendid services in the developmentof his adopted State ! Already, 
however, he and his colleagues in the noble achievements so phenomenally accom- 
plished may exultantly exclaim, in the proud words of Horace, Exegi monuvientum are 
perennis ! For so long as the mountains at Birmingham shall be encircled with the horse- 
shoe of everlasting luck, the valley that is lit up with the fires of countless industries, 
and that echoes the hum of machinery, and the rumbling of hundreds of daily trains, 
transporting its products to the far-away marts of the world ; so long as iron ore, coal, 
lime-rock and sand lie contiguously in exhaustless quantities, as they do not elsewhere 
on the face of the habitable globe, so long will be remembered the names of those 
intrepid and untiring business intellects which have here given to the world the bless- 
ing of a matchless prosperity, and an unexampled growth in material development and 
■wealth. 

In concluding this sketch, may we not indulge in a pardonable pride in the land of 
our home and hopes, and say that we believe that despite the wonderful natural ability, 
the persistence, the sagacity, and the invariable success which he has commanded else- 
where, Mr. Handley, even, could nowhere, except in a region so blessed as is Birming- 
ham and its environments, have accomplished so stupendous a lifework, so distinguished 
a position among men, and so immense a fortune. The sun that kisses the brow of our 
mountains, blazes in our valleys throughout the day, and sinks to rest, leaving us lighted 
by the artificial fires that glow from our furnaces throughout the night, nowhere on 
all the earth sheds its rays upon a clime more blessed with every conceivable human 
advantage. Through the agency of Mr. Handley and his co-workers these facts have 
been made manifest to the millions in America and Europe ; and population and money 
are pouring in, as the mountain's torrent pours its volume of rushing waters into the 
lowlands sleeping at the base. They "come not as single spies, but in battalions;" 
they come to stay, and to add their energy and their treasure in the great work of 
business revolution at the South ; they are already receiving reward for their faith and 
toil ; but the future has prizes in store for them that eclipse those fabled gifts of the 
genii, recounted in the Arabian Nights talcs. So, at last, truth shall become far 
stranger than fiction. 

The prophecies of Mr. Handley, whioh have been so often fulfilled in respect to the 
growth of this city, may be entitled to more than ordinary consideration. In a recent 
interview he enthusiastically declared his renewed confidence in the future of the city. 
" Why," said he, " who can calculate the outcome of a very few years? Those ijeople 
who are coming here are all more than gratified with the results of their speculations, 
and each one of them is an instrumentality through which many others will be 
attracted. Endowed by nature with resources that are unparalleled on the globe ; with 



Biographical. 441 



railroad means of communication, completed and projected, that give tliem unsurpassed 
interstate communication and cheap transit to the best markets of the world — there will 
be twenty new railroads impinging here in the next five years — and with the most enter- 
prising population that ever pioneered a great movement for material development; 
with iron, coal, and limestone at our doors ; with marble and other minerals in easy 
reach ; with welcome to people from all parts of the world, and especially from the 
United States, we may justly look forward to the accomplishment, at no distant date, of 
most wonderful results. Indeed," he proceeded, " it is not only possible, but it is more 
than highly probalile, that in five years from to-day the mineral belt of Alabama 
will contain one million people, and a people of more wealth per capita than any on the 
face of the earth. As for Birmingham and Jefferson County, the beginning of the 
twentieth century will witness its stalwart growth into a roVjust, but ever-growing man- 
hood. Jeflerson County will be the site of the metal works of the continent, and will, 
as a center of iron and steel manufacture, have no parallel either in America or Europe. 
It is my firm belief that the valleys, mountains, hillsides, and plains of Jeflerson County 
will be literally covered with manufacturing establishments, warehouses, stores, and 
the habitations of its million of inhabitants — the most prosperous and happiest on 
earth — in the year 1900. The effect of this development in the mineral districts of Ala- 
bama will be such as to greatly enhance the value of the fertile and productive agricul- 
tural lands of the other sections of the State. The tide of emigration and capital, now 
pouring into Alabama, will not be so blind as to fail to perceive the great opportunities 
of the farming regions, in supplying the mining and manufacturing centers, and will 
pour into the prairies, and the river bottoms, and the piney woods, and the sea-coast 
country, to engage in enterprises that will find their best support and market in this 
mineral belt. It is certain that large plantations will be sub-divided into small farms, 
and more people will till the soil upon more intelligent systems, and more profitably, 
than has of late been the rule. Aye, in less than two decades, from the Gulf to the 
Tennessee Valley, rousing from her sleep like some mighty giant, peerless Alabama, 
shaking off the dew-drops that have glittered on her garments, will rise to the full 
statue of her matchless grandeur, and march with proud mien and invincible step to 
her only proper place — the very van and lead of American commonwealths. Her mil- 
lions of citizens,-with their billions of capital, will be the greatest industrial power of 
all ages and all climes." 

Such is the prediction of one of Alabama's sons, whose name will be handed down 
to future generations, by the traditions of our people, as a brave pioneer in the great 
rehabilitation and development of the brightest jewel that shines in the flashing diadem 
of gems that crown the brow of the lovely and spirited New South. 



%. iJ. s^o4en ;;f 



ras born in DeKalb County, Alabama, in 184-1, and is a .son of 
B. and Viola Harrison Roilen, who were natives of Ten- 
nessee, but came with their parents to what is now Alabama before it was organized as 
a State. 

His grandfather, Joseph U. Harrison, was a representative of the first legislature of 
the State, and his grandfather, John B. Roden, the first tax collector of Blount County, 
in which both men first located. The father died in 1S76, at the advanced age of ninety- 
one. 

The parents of our subject were married in Blount County, and followed agricul- 
tural pursuits. 



442 Jeffersott Coioity. 



B. F. Roden was reared upon a farm, and received the early education that the 
schools of that period afforded. He was among the first to enter the Confederate ser- 
vice in 1861, and continued during the entire war period. 

He first became a member of Company G, Twenty -seventh Alabama Infantry, which 
was subsequently formed into the Thirty-first, and soon after consolidated and made the 
Forty-ninth Infantry, serving in Polk's army, Breckinridge's Kentucky Brigade and 
Division. At the battle of Shiloh he was severely wounded by a musket ball, which 
shattered the knee joint, which forced him to resign from active service, and he was- 
assigned to the commissary department, where he remained until the close of the war. 
After the close of hostilities Mr. Roden migrated to Texas, and for over two years- 
attended McKenzie's College, and subsequently, for two years, was a teacher in the Choc- 
taw Nation, Indian Territory. 

Returning to Alabama he entered the mercantile trade at Gadsden, under the flria 
name of Latham & Roden, where he remained four years. 

In 1871 Mr. Roden came to Birmingham, where he has been engaged in active busi- 
ness ever since, and has assisted, to a large extent, in building up the business portion 
of the town, and also various public corporations and enterprises. One of the finest 
business blocks in the city bears his name. It is on the corner of Second Avenue and 
Twentieth Street, is three stories high, built of pressed brick, and handsomely trimmed 
with stone. The lower floor is occupied by Mr. Roden as a grocery, and the Birming- 
ham National Bank. The second floor is occupied by offices, and the third floor as 
bedrooms. 

Mr. Roden devotes his time chiefly to the various corporations with which he is- 
connected. He is the founder and president of the Avondale Land Company ; is one 
of the founders of the Birmingham Gas and Electric Light Company, of which he is \'ice- 
president, general manager and treasurer ; is one of the founders of the Birmingham. 
Chain Works, and is president of the Birmingham Insurance Company. He is also one 
of the directors of the Alabama National Bank, and a large investor in real estate. 

Mr. Roden served as alderman during the first ten trying years of the history of 
Birmingham, and was the founder and president of the first street railroad. 

In 1872 he married Miss Ella Didlake, of Perry County, Alabama. They have five 
children — Viola H., Florence L., Lillian, Mabelle, and Benjamin F., Jr. 



^. eK. Si)anftftea4 \^l 



I born in ]\Iarion County, Alabama, September 13, 
His father, James G. Bankhead, was a Virginian, 
but settled in Marion County in 1818, and lived there until his death, in 1861. His 
mother, Susan Hollis, came from Darlington District, South Carolina, to the same portion 
of the State in 1822, and is now living with her son. 

There were three sons and one daughter born to them, and all of them are living in 
the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama, of which he is to be the representative in 
the Fiftieth Congress. 

Young Bankhead spent all his life prior to the war on his father's farm, and worked 
and went to school alternately. He remembers vividly plowing with the proverbially 
contrary mule. 

When the war came on he entered Company K, Sixteenth Alabama Regiment of 
Infantry, commanded by Captain J. B. Powers, and the regiment by Colonel W. B. 
Wood, now Judge Wood, of Florence. He enlisted as a private. He was in the strug- 
gle from beginning to end, and took part in the battles of Fishing Creek, Perryville^ 



Biographical. 443, 



Murfret'sboro, Khiloh, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Franklin, and all the principal battles of 
the Western Army. After the battle of Fishing Creek he was promoted to third lieuten- 
ant, and captain after the battle of Shiloh. He was wounded three times. 

After the war Captain Bankhead engaged in farming on his home place. 

He represented his county in the lower house of the legislature in the session of 
1865-66, which was the first session held after the war. He took an active part in carv- 
ing out the new county of Lamar, from Marion. He was in the State Senate from the 
Twelfth Senatorial District, composed of the counties of Lamar, Franklin, Fayette, and 
Marion, in the session of the general assembly of 1877. 

In 1881 he was appointed warden of the penitentiary and held the office four years. 

It was in 1882 that Captain Bankhead first became interested in Birmingham, and 
he has since then greatly increased his possessions in the city. 

In 1883 he became associated with Colonel J. F. B. Jackson and others in the manu- 
facture of lime and lumber at Blount iSprings, and held his possessions there with the 
others of the company until February, 1887, and then sold out, with considerable pecu- 
niary advantage. 

Captain Bankhead was the originator, and took an important part in organizing the 
Birmingham Chain Works. He is also a stockholder, and maintains important relations 
to the Watts Coal and Coke Company ; Birmingham Real Estate and Investment Com- 
pany, and the Sipsey River Coal Company. The last named owns 20,000 acres, among 
the finest and richest coal lands in the State, and while they are already very valuable, 
they are destined to grow far more so ; in all of these important corporations Captain 
Bankhead has given evidence of great business tact and capacity, and has grown 
wealthy with them. 

Captain Bankhead was nominated by the Democratic convention of the Sixth Con- 
gressional District at Fayette Court House, September 3, 1886, to represent the district 
in the Fiftieth Congress, and was elected in November following. His friends warmly 
rejoiced in his elevation to the office, and do not doubt that he will make an acceptable 
and capable member. 

Captain Bankhead was married November 13, 18G6, to Miss Tallulah, daughter of 
James Brockman, of Wetumpka. She is also the granddaughter of the distinguished 
Col. Thomas P. Brockman, of South Carolina. Five children have been born to them — 
Louise B., Marie S., John H., Jr., Henry M., and Mason. 

Captain Bankhead stands high as a Mason, and has served as Grand Master of the 
Grand Lodge of Alabama. 

^ All the members of his family are Methodists. 



444 Jeffe7'snn Coujiiy. 



JT23^\oj2^<:tov^Vj. 



(^ O (K\i\f'.9P'. ^„.^ A^^ was born in New Richmond, Ohio, January 11, 
CS. ^. ©yitriamx^OQ ,s,3 Hi^ ^^^^^^^ jj^^^y Williamson, came to 

Ohio from Pennsylvania, and settled at New Richmond. His mother, Julia Hough, 
came from Loudon County, Virginia. Tlie former was of Welsh, and the hitter Eng- 
lish descent. His father was a river engineer for many years, and ran on different 
steamers in this capacity, and for a large portion of the time from Cincinnati to New 
Orleans, and then from Louisville to New Orleans. He continued to run in this 
trade until sustaining personal injuries in the burning of a steamboat. He then left 
the river, and in 1844 moved his family to New Albany, Indiana. 

The educational advantages of the son were obtained at the public schools in 
New Albany, and, when not going to school he clerked in a book store. He con- 
tinued thus engaged until fifteen years old, and then went to work in the Louis- 
ville, Now Albany & Chicago Railroad Company's Shops, and remained in them 
until 1801, when he was elected second lieutenant of Company C, of the Sixteenth 
Indiana Regiment. His colonel was P. A. Hackelman. Young Williamson served 
in the Army of the Potomac thirteen months, until the winter of 1862, when he 
returned home to work in the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Shops in Loui.sville. 
He worked one year, and was then assigned to the pattern shops of the Louisville, 
New Albany & Chicago Railroad, and filled the responsible position of foreman 
there for six months. At the end of this time he returned to Louisville and worked 
in a similar capacity for Davies & Co., engine builders. After five years' connection 
with this firm, he took charge of the shops of Sneed, Sayre & O'Bryan, who were 
architectural iron workers. He was, for the first year, foreman of the pattern shop, 
and was then promoted to the position of superintendent. He continued to work 
here, with great satisfaction to his employers, until the latter part of 1874, when he 
came to Birmingham to do the iron work on the First National Bank. 

Going back a little, it is necessary to state that it was in the winter of 1871-72 
that Mr. Williamson first came to Birmingham for the purpose above stated, but 
he had not then determined to live here. During the progress of the work already 
mentioned, Mr. Charles Linn made a proposition which culminated in his removal 
to the young town in January, 1875. He was, at the first, part owner and superin- 
tendent of the Birmingham Foundry and Car Manufacturing Company, now known 
as the Linn Iron Works. He continued in this position until March, 1879, and 
then retired from this establishment to build the Jeflerson Foundry, of which he 
was the sole proprietor. These latter works were put in operation on the 1st of May 
of that year. The shop was then small and worked only about ten men. It has, 
however, had a prosperous career, and from a small beginning has grown to be one 
of the most important enterprises in Birmingham, and hiis worked up to its full 
capacity almost from the start. Of late years its capacity has been taxed to its 
utmost, which is the best evidence of the superior character of the work done. 
The pay-roll, carrying ten men to begin on, now has one hundred and fifty. 







^. /^/l^M^ 



Biograpliical. 449 



In July, 18S5, Mr. Williamsou was the prime mover in the organization of the 
new Williamson Iron Company. The building of their furnace was the beginning of 
the present " boom " in furnace-building now going on in the Birmingham district. 
The new company was known as the Williamson Iron Company, and the Jefferson 
Foundry was merged into the new enterprise. The furnace thus far has had a sim- 
ilar experience to the foundry, and, with its capable management, there is no rea- 
son to suppose that any other fate than prosperity will befall it. Thus it is seen 
that Mr. Williamson has thoroughly established himself as one of the essentially 
representative men of this progressive city. 

In 1864 he was married to Miss Mary Bligh, of Louisville, Kentucky. He has 
four children — Harry, Emma, Julia, and Mary. Harry is assistant superintendent of 
the Williamson Iron Company. Miss Emma was married to Mr. W. L. Woodruff, 
manager of the Birmingham Telephone Exchange, in 1886, and now resides with 
her husband in the city. All of the rest of the family also live here. He had two 
brothers, Braden and William. The former is dead, and the latter is farming in 
Illinois. His father and mother both died a few years since in New Albany. 

Mr. Williamson is a member of the Methodist Church, and of Mineral City 
Lodge of Odd Fellows, of Birmingham, has taken most of the degrees in the order, 
and has filled many of the offices. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor. 



©y 



~» ^ 7 I .^T^ ^ „«.»^^7] is one of the youngest of the iron-makers of 
ITL. ©J. UneLerCDOOeL ^^^^ United states, and none are better known 
among those who sustain the new-born fame of Alabama in the great iron markets than 
he. The industrial civilization of our times is a moral and intellectual plane upon which 
strong men dispose great events. Leaders play their parts there as surely as in the eras 
of war, or discovery, or political reform. There are subjects to be moved upon that 
plane, under the most enlarged theories of offensive and defensive combination, regu- 
lated, withal, by the most advanced principles of social and political development. The 
widening influence of commerce; the refinement of thought, put in motion by the 
steam-driven machine ; the cultivation of personal honor, in the realm of banking ; the 
elevated manhood of labor are among the subjects, of which we speak, and whose dis- 
position the n.odern business man is brought to contemplate and appreciate. 

The personal elements of character which insure Mr. Underwood's high rank in his 
chosen sphere of life are the strictest integrity and directness of conduct, promptness 
and energy in methods, intelligence in opinions, ready accessibility and unvarying 
courtesy of intercourse. He is a business man, thoroughly identified with the life of the 
people among whom he lives. 

W. T. Underwood was born in Nashville, Tcnn., July 24, 1848. He is descended 
from an English colonist, who settled in Goocliland County, Virginia, as a planter 
toward the middle of the eighteenth century. Joseph R. Underwood, grandfather of 
William T., emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky in his youth. His name is honorably 
connected with the history of his adopted State He served as a soldier in the war of 
1812. He represented one of the Kentucky districts in the lower house of Congress, and 
represented the State in the Senate. He was a lawyer of great distinction, and served 
as one of the judges of the court of appeals of that State. 

The father, Eugene Underwood, is now a large farmer and land owner in Warren 
County, Kentucky. He wa.s for several years a practicing lawyer at Nashville, Tenn. 
He was one of the originators of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and one of its first 
directors. 



.450 Jefferson County. 



William T. was carried to Louisville, Ky., by his father, after the death of hi8 
mother in Nashville, and there placed in the public schools. From these he was 
advanced to the Forest Academy, near the city. Having been well educated, Mr. Un- 
derwood read law, and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced the profession. 
He soon left Louisville to enter into land operations in Minnesota, and there became 
associated with influential men. His efforts in the West were altogether successful 
and satisfactory. In 187-1 he took up his residence again in Louisville, but even then 
he continued to buy and sell the lands of Jlinnesota and other Western States and 
Territories, to examine titles and negotiate loans. 

In 1882 Mr. Underwood was induced to come to Birmingham. He saw at once 
the marvelous opportunities here open to energy and capital well directed. He re- 
solved to remain permanently, and then associated himself with Mr. H. F. De Bar- 
deleben and others in founding the Mary Pratt Furnace Company. 

Mr. Underwood has disposed of much of his possessions in other States to con- 
centrate them at Birmingham. He is now a large investor in manufactories and real 
estate in and near the city. He is a director of the First National Bank, and presi- 
dent of the ^lary Pratt Furnace Company, whose affairs he manages with distinguished 
-capacity and success. He refused a nomination to the legislature at the August, 1886, 
election. 

Mr. Underwood's mother, Catharine Underwood, nee Thompson, who died when 
he was ten years old, was a daughter of a lawyer of note, William Thompson, of 
Nashville. 

In 1871 William T. Underwood and >Iiss -Miranda B. Wilder, daughter of Oscar 
Wilder, a Louisville gentleman of wealth, were married. They lost their only child, 
a son, born to them in Birmingham. Mrs. Underwood is a very active promoter of 
the interests of the Episcopal Church, of which she is a member, and of practical 
charities of various kinds in the city. Mr. Underwood is a member of both the Ma- 
sonic and Odd Fellow fraternities. 



George (i. 3<^effeL), 



one of the most progressive business men of Ala- 
bama, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, 
July 30, 1847. Upon his father's side his ancestry is traced to the early settlers of Con- 
necticut, and his mother was a niece of General Greene, of revolutionary fame. His 
father was for many years a prominent business man of Wilmington, N. C, and from 
him he inherited the superior business attributes which he has displayed in the man- 
agement and establishment of one of the best-known mercantile houses of Birmingham. 
Educated in private schools, at the age of seventeen he entered the army, but did 
not engage in active service. His business life began in North Carolina, where, for a 
period of two years, he was associated with his father in the general mercantile trade. 
Returning to Wilmington he was connected with George A. Peck, in the hardware 
business, for five years. He subsequently accepted the position of private secretary, 
under the president and superintendent of the Atlantic Coast Railroad lines, and filled 
it acceptably for two years. He next entered the auditor's department of the Wil- 
mington & Weldon Railroad Company, which position he retained until 1S78, when 
he resigned, and was placed in charge of the hooks of William Hall & Co., leading hard- 
ware merchants, of Montgomery, Ala. 

In 1881 he became a resident of Birmingham, and erected upon Second Avenue one 
of the finest buildings devoted to the mercantile trade that now adorn it. It is a model 
of its kind. 




/ \ \ 



-..^^ 



Biographical. 453 



Mr. Kelley established a trade which reaches and embraces nearly the entire South, 
■devoting his energies entirely to the wholesale and retail hardware business. In Jan- 
uary, 1887, he sold his hardware bu.siness, and devotes his time to wider fields. Pos- 
sessing a thorough knowledge of his trade, and the superior advantages of Birmingham 
as a manufacturing center, he was the primal power in establishing the Baxter Stove 
Manufacturing Company, destined to become one of the leading industries of the 
South. He is the president of this company, a complete sketch of which appears in 
another portion of this work. 

Mr. Kelley is also president of the St. Clair Mining and Mineral Company, and owns 
a one-half interest in the Alabama & Coosa Coal Company, consisting of five thousand 
acres located near Birmingham, upon the Georgia Pacific Railroad. 

Mr. Kelley was the leader in erecting ■ many magnificent suburban homes 
around Birmingham, having, in 1882, purchased upon Fountain Heights an area of ten 
acres, upon which he erected the beautiful residence that he now occupies. 

He has invested his accumulations in Birmingham, and is largely interested in the 
most valuable mining lands of the State ; in a number of the leading corporations of 
the city, and is always ready to advance a helping hand to any project pertaining to 
the development of the home of bis adoption. 

Mr. Kelley is a young man, and possesses superior business qualifications, upon 
■which it is not necessary to enlarge, for the success which has attended his career 
speaks for itself. He is a charitable Christian gentleman. He was united in marriage 
June 25, 1874, with Miss Icoline L. Bates, daughter of Jared and Artemisa (Tulane) 
Bates, natives of Alabama. To them have been born three children — George Bates, 
Wilbur Edrald, and Irwin Olin. 

0;^-6^.aJ (g\i\/ CK^P^^A one of the progressive manufacturers of the 
i^lCnarc) ®Y^. i^Otar^Cl, ^.^^ south, wL bom in county Kildare, 
Ireland, in 1848, and is a son of D. and Catharine (Flinn) Boland, who emigrated 
to America when Richard W. was an infant. They located in Philadelphia, where his 
father became a manufacturer of agricultural implements, and still resides. 

Richard received the benefit of the public schools of that city, and also the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania ; subsequently became a medical student, and in 1873 gradu- 
ated from the celebrated Jefferson Medical College. For a short period he practiced 
that profession, but developing a taste for mechanics he abandoned professional life and 
entered that other important branch of science, the modern manufacturing business. 
From 1874 to 1877 he was actively engaged in manufacturing agricultural hardware 
in Philadelphia. Removing to New Orleans, he was engaged in the same business 
there until 1881, when he became a resident of Birmingham, and established his 
present works, now one of the most important of the many industries of the city. A 
full sketch of the business established by Mr. Boland appears in another portion of 
this work. 

Mr. Boland has established an excellent reputation as an energetic and progres- 
. sive business man, and also as a citizen of high repute. He is president of the Bir- 
mingham jNIachine and Foundry Company ; a director and large stockholder of the 
East Birmingham Land Company, and one of the organizers and incorporators 
of the Birmingham Hospital. Mr. Boland was appointed one of the committee to 
prepare a memorial to Congress, at the convention held at Pensacola, Fla., of the 
Industrial and Shipping League. He is ever ready to assist in every way in building 
up the city of his adoption. 



454 Jefferson County. 



The wife of Mr. Boland is a descendant of one of the oldest Quaker families of 
Philadelphia, where they have been residents for over two hundred years ; her maiden 
name was Miss Sallie H Davis. They were married in October, 1877, and are members 
of the Episcopal Church. 

(55\/\/ JT^ I^K'oci'voi* is the proprietor of a large sash, blind, and door factory 
Y • ^ t e; \JJ jjj Birmingham, where he has accumulated a fortune. 

He began active life as an apprentice boy, and is now the employer of more than si.xty 
hands, although a young man. He is a native of Lancaster, S. C, where he was born 
in 1850, the son of Elias B. and Rebecca (Riddle) Brewer. He commenced to learn the 
carpenter's trade at the age of eight years, and when fourteen the lad was sent to work 
in the shops of the Confederate Government at $15 per day. Confederate money, and 
continued until the shops were destroyed by the United States troops. Mr. Brewer 
was a building contractor in Montgomery for five yeans, and came to Birmingham in 
the first year of its life, in 1871, where he continued the occupation of building con- 
tractor. He helped to build the Relay House, the fir.st structure erected of any im- 
portance. He began, in 1874, on a small scale, his present line of business. By suc- 
cessive steps he has increased it to large proportions and heavy profits. From a mere 
shed for a workshop his quarters have grown to a large double-story brick structure, 
where all the modern machinery is at work, supplying home and distant markets, and 
giving work to a large number of employees. Mr. Brewer has been active in promoting 
the public good in Birmingham. He became chief of the unpaid fire department, when 
it had sadly degraded, and by his personal influence, good judgment, and honorable 
conduct elevated it to usefulness and as good discipline as a volunteer service could be 
expected to allow, and has won the confidence and respect of all classes. He has also 
served in the city council. 

Mr. Brewer's career is illustrative of the good uses to which a Southern boy has 
applied the opportunities of the new era. He was married in November, 1874, to Miss 
Ella, daughter of Simeon Stough, of Montgomery County, Ala. Five children have 
been born to them^Willie, Edward, Walter (deceased), Elias, and Philip. 

C^P-£..;^~^ ^«..>.^. . @-^*^.o^./»A 1 .A isanativeof Dresden, Maine 
Gfbneige fe^ern/ |§1:e^^el2X^, ^r., ^.^ere he was bom Jn ISoo! 

His parents, Dr. E. G. and .\lfreda M. Marson Stevens are natives of Maine. 

His father began his medical practice in Mississippi about the year 18.38, where he 
remained a few years, returning to his native State, locating at Dreslen, Kennebunk, and 
Biddeford, Maine, where he established an extensive practice, which extended over the 
States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. He subsequently became a resi- 
dent of Old Orchard Beach, where he is still engaged in active practice. 

The subject of this biography graduated from the high schools of Biddeford, Maine, 
and at the age of sixteen entered Portland (Maine) College, and after finishing his 
studies there became a law student, continuing in the office of Hubbard & Wedgewood 
for two years. 

He next entered commercial life, and was financier and bookkeeper of a large boot 
and shoe firm in Boston for over four years. Resigning he became cashier of the Stand- 
ard Sugar Refinery of the same city, and acceptably tilled that position for about five 
years. 

Learning of the great development of Southern industries he came to Birmingham 
in the latter part of 1884, and in that short period intervening has established a name 
as one of the most enterprising of the young business element of the city. 







77 



Biographical. 457 



Mr. Stevens purchased the fire-brick plant owned by Mr. DeBardeleben, and 
entirely reconstructed it, making additions and placing the most improved machinery, 
until now he lias a capacity of six millions of bricks annually, employing about seventy 
men. He meets all competition, and ships extensively to nearly all Southern sections. 

In January, 1886, he formed his business into a corporation, and was elected presi- 
dent and general manager. Their plant consists of ten acres of land lying between Bir- 
mingham and Avondale, and the company also owns two hundred acres of valuable 
fire-clay land near the city. 

Mr. Stevens has invented a fire-grate lining which commands great success. 
Besides being very handsome and ornamental, it reflects great heat, effects a saving of 
coal, and costs very little more than the common setting. 

He has established a large number of branch offices in the leading cities of the 
Union for the sale of his fire-bricks, fire-brick tile, engine blocks, fire-clay sewer pipe, 
drain tile, lawn vases and pedestals, chimney tops, flue linings, street-paving bricks, 
red-pressed, ornamental and fancy, glazed and common encaustic tiling and terra cotta 
ware. 

JNIr. Stevens is a Knight Templar Mason, and a man who receives and commands 
the respect of his fellow-men, and in his private life is an accomplished musician and 
gentleman. 

He was married in October, 1882, to Miss Mabel F., daughter of James L. and 
Amanda M., nee Pratt Hanson, of Boston, Massachusetts. 

They are the parents of two children — James H. and Robert G. 

©V^iffiar^ Jf. ©^//oorariage :SfS:i£:^*:Zi^, 

came to Memphis from Woodford County, Kentucky, in 18-15, and lived there until his 
death in 1859. His mother, Elizabeth White, was also a native of Woodford County,. 
Kentucky. William was one of a family of eight children — five were boys, and three 
girls, and he was the fifth child. He began when he was only seven years old going to. 
a private school in his native county, and during the war attended school one year. 
Subsequently, he went to Franklin College, in Middle Tennessee, one year, making a 
sum total of his school life of four years. 

After quitting school he farmed several years in the rich bottoms of Bolivar County, 
Mississippi, near Memphis, and then traveled for the large wood and willow warehouse 
of Wheeler, Pickens & Co., of that city, from 1872 to 1878. He passed through the yel- 
low-fever scourge of 1873, but in the year 1878, when the city was well nigh depopulated 
by another visitation of the plague, he escaped to Louisville, Ky. There went into the 
large stove manufactory of John G. Baxter. For awhile he traveled, and also acted as 
general manager of the entire establishment. When applying himself to the former 
class of work his territory embraced almost the entire South, covering a period of 
fourteen years. He thus became extensively acquainted in that section. He made 
many large sales, and greatly enlarged the business by his untiring energy. 

On Mr. John G. Baxter's death, in 1884, the John G. Baxter Stove and Foundry 
Company was organized, of which company he was made president ; W. D. Hill, vice- 
president ; and C. W. Sisson, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Wooldridge had made all of 
his arrangements to go into the stove manufacturing business in Birmingham early in 
1884, and would have done so had it not been for the death of Mr. Baxter, which neces- 
sitated his taking full charge of the business in Louisville. It was not until August, 
1886, that he, in company w'ith Mr Hill, put this intention into practice. It was then 
that the present site was selected for the removal of the Stove Works to this city. The 

25 



458 Jeffersoti County. 



object that most engaged his attention was to get the Works estabUshed and in running 
order in their new location, and to accompHsh this required not only much skill and 
forethought, but a thorough knowledge of the business and its requirements. It is con- 
siderably to the credit of Mr. Wooldridge that he drew the specifications and carried 
out all the plans of this large establishment, and very naturally ought to feel proud of 
his success. 

A description in detail of the building will not be amiss in this connection : The 
main building, where all the molding is done, is two hundred feet square ; the mount- 
ing and finishing rooms will be two stories high, and measure one hundred by one hun- 
dred and seventy feet ; the storeroom, also two stories, will measure ninety by one hun- 
dred feet. The most elaborate finishing, electroplating, etc., are done in these works. 
The most skillful patternmakers will be employed, and the newest features will always 
be incorporated as a part of their stove-making. The number of men to whom this 
establishment will afford work will be four hundred, and the daily capacity is two hun- 
dred stoves. Some of the handsomest patterns used in this factory are due to the inge- 
nuity of Mr. Wooldridge, he not only having designed but made them himself. Never 
having served an apprenticeship at any trade he lias a thorough knowledge of machinery, 
and fully understands the use of all kinds of tools. On December 13th, 1886, the ma- 
chinery of the John G. Baxter manufactory was put into motion in Birmingham, and 
thus another great factor added to her wealth-producing power. 

Mr. Wooldridge's domestic relations have been fortunate. He had three brothers — 
Oscar, Charles A., and Egbert in the Confederate Army. They belonged to the Army of 
Tennessee, under the command of General E. Kirby Smith. Their division commander 
was General Frank Cheatham. Charles w;is killed at the fall of Atlanta, and Oscar and 
Egbert died in Memphis since the war. Albert is now a cotton merchant in St. Louis. 
His sisters, Mrs. Judge T. J. Latham, Mrs. Harriet Simpson, and Mrs. Maggie Peters 
all reside in Memphis. 

Mr. Wooldridge was married February 28, 1878, to Miss Mary, the oldest daughter of 
Mr. John G. Baxter, of Louisville, and has two sous, John Baxter and Wilham Latham. 

He is a member of the Christian Church, while his wife is an Episcopalian. 

It is needless to add more to a career spent in such close compliance with the 
demands of active business. The prints of the labor we have before us are the highest 
encomium that could be expressed. 

Cc^ (55\A/ ^*AAnr> is secretary and treasurer of the Baxter Stove Works of 
v^, KJ Y' • ^_)l^.e)Ul I Birjjiiiigijam, already one of the leading iron industries 
of the South, and doubtless destined to become of reputation in its line commensurate 
with the fame of Birmingham. 

Mr. Sisson is a native of Wheeling, W. Va., the son of John E. and Maria Ann Sisson, 
»iee Wood. He wasborn November 1, 1858. After passing through the common schools, 
and spending a year at the West Alexandria Academy, he entered Washington and 
Jeflferson College, Pa., where he remained until 1875. He then entered mercantile 
employment as a clerk at McKeesport, Pa., with a coal-mining store, and soon became 
assistant manager of the business. In 187S he was bookkeeper in Cincinnati. In the 
same year he went to New Orleans, to open a branch house in the oleomargarine trade. 
The yellow fever drove him away from that venture, and he at once went to Louisville, 
and opened a commission house, with his brother-in-law as senior partner, under the 
style of Crump & Sisson. After eight years in that line he -went into the employment 
of the Baxter Stove Works of Louisville as secretary and treasurer. In two months 
Hill, Wooldridge & Sisson bought the plant and moved it to Birmingham. 



Biographical. 459 



Mr. Sisson is a welcome addition to tlie manufacturing circles of the city, as he 
possesses rare business attributes and practical experience. 

Mr. Sisson was married Octfll)er 14, 1885, to Miss Carrie, daughter of John G. Bax- 
ter, of Louisville. He is a member of the Episcopal Church. 

Sa/nUPl H. tidbtOn was born at Knoxvllle, Tennessee, February lim^ 
■^ \ I 5 / ' He IS a sou of Andrew D. and Lliza J. Allen Lighton, 

the former a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and the latter of Madison County, Alabama. 
His father was a foundryman at Huntsville, Ala., for some years. 

The subject attended the common schools until he was ten years old, and then 
began assisting his father in the foundry, where he worked with him for two years, or 
until the latter's removal to Louisville, Ky., in 1869. Young Lighton attended a school 
one year after arriving at his new home, and then commenced work for Sneed & Co., 
of that city, who were iron workers. He entered their establishment to learn pattern- 
making, and, after remaining with them nine year8,he entered the iron worksof Ansley, 
Cochrane & Co., where he was assistant pattern-maker, and among other notable work 
he did was to assist in making the patterns for the Birmingham Rolling Mills which 
y/ere built a few years ago, and one of the largest concerns of the kind in America. 

In August, 1882, he engaged with Aikin & Drummond, of Louisville, and made 
patterns for their molding machines for four months, and was then appointed foreman 
of their works. His effectiveness in this capacity attracted their praise, and in six 
months he was promoted to be superintendent of the entire establishment, and held it 
two years. Mr. Aikin then sold out his interests, and young Lighton remained with 
the Drummond Manufacturing Company one year longer. 

In September, 1884, he moved to Birmingham, and formed a copartnership with 
Mr. Aikin, and built a large foundry and machine shop, and since has been very pros- 
perous, the business having very greatly increased; indeed, being much larger than he 
ever anticipated. The firm make a specialty of the Aikin improved molding machine, 
which is a great success, judging by the popularity it has attained. 

Mr. Lighton was married September 5, 1882, to Miss Maggie, daughter of Mr. Aikin, 
his former employer, and at present his associate in business. Thus is seen in Mr. 
Lighton's career an example of what maybe accomplished by the deserving and worthy. 
He commenced an apprentice boy, and is now one of the proprietors of an important, 
thriving, industrial establishment. No worthier example of emulation can be found 
than he. He is quite a young man, and his greatest achievements are before and invite 
him onward. 

Pahrirl^ R\/rnO is a native of Ireland, and was born in the city of Dublin Feb- 
\'\ / l\ ruary 27, 1840. His early life was spent in that city, and he 
attended the public schools there until he was fourteen years of age, and then entered 
Dublin University, where he took the special courses of civil and mechanical engineer- 
ing for two years. He wentto London in 1856, and stood a successful competitive exam- 
ination for draughtsman in the naval department, and was assigned to duty at Chatham 
Navy Yards, on the Medway. While performing his duties at Chatham he studied nav- 
igation, and in 1858 was again successful in a competitive examination for assistant sail- 
ing master in the navy. Shortly afterward he received his commission, and was ordered 
to join the flag ship of the Brazilian squadron. After an-iving at Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 
and reporting for duty, he was assigned to the coast survey then being made for the 
use of the navy. In pursuance of his duties in this department he visited Babria, Per- 
nambuca, Montevideo, and Buenos Ayres, and the intervening coasts. 



460 Jefferso7i County. 



The war of 1861-65 in America breaking out about this time, and his sj'mpathies 
being with the Southern side, he tendered his resignation and returned to England, on 
its acceptance, and immediately took passage from Liverpool in a blockade runner for 
Charleston, S. C, with the intention of becoming an officer in the Confederate Navy. 
On arrival in Charleston and finding it difficult to secure a position, and being anxious 
to do something for the cause, he accepted a place as second officer of a blockade run- 
ner, and continued in the service for nearly four years, making trips from Nassau, in 
the early part of the war, to Matamoras and Galveston ; later to Savannah, Charleston, 
and Wilmington. On many of the trips were numerous adventures and hair-breadth 
escapes, until at last he was taken prisoner at Wilmington January, 1865, and was sent 
to Fortress Monroe, and from there to Governor's Island, N. Y. He remained a pris- 
oner until the last week in February, when he was discharged on parole. Blockade 
running at that time being at a discount, and not being able to return South, he accepted 
a position as second officer on the ship Western Empire, then loading coal for San Juan 
Del Sue, on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, and made his first trip around Cape Horn. 
His first information of the war being over was received in June, on his arrival at San 
Juan Del Sue. After discharging the cargo his ship sailed for Calleo, Peru, and from 
there to Chinoca Islands, and loaded guano for New York, arriving back in New York 
in June, 1866. He then sailed from New York in the T. J. Southard for Lafrau, N. B., 
and loaded lumber for Liverpool, England. On arriving in Liverpool he left the 
Sojithard and joined the Sophia, then loading tin, pig iron, and salt for Galveston, 
Texas, and sailed from Galveston in JIarch, 1867, loaded with cotton for Liverpool. 
From Liverpool he took passage for New York, which ended his sea-faring life. After 
remaining some time as draughtsman in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, he went to Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, and worked as a draughtsman in the city engineer's office. He was 
appointed assistant city engineer of Covington, Ky., January 1, 1868, and remained in 
that position one year. He came to Nashville, Tenn., January 1, 1869, where he lived 
more than seventeen years. He established in that city an elevator manufactory, and 
conducted a most thriving business for the whole time of his residence in Nashville. 
There was no other industry of the kind in the State of Tennessee. Captain Byrne is 
the inventor and patentee of a hand-power elevator and other improvements on eleva- 
tors of various kinds, which he first introduced there, and also introduced a novelty in 
machinery in the way of an elevator operated by gas, which gave it the advantage of 
being used in stores and other places where steam could not be conveniently applied. 
Captain Byrne has made a scientific study of hoisting machinery, and, being possessed 
of some judgment and practical sense, there is no wonder he has always been successful.. 

Captain Byrne was honored by his fellow citizens on several occasions during his 
residence in Nashville. In June, 1877, he was elected first lieutenant of the Burns 
(Tennessee) Light Artillery, and in June, 1880, upon the resignation of its captain, he 
was elected to succeed him. In 1880 he received, by acclamation, the Democratic nomi- 
nation as representative for the lower house of the general assembly, and received the 
third largest vote on the ticket. He was nominated again in 1SS2, but declined the 
honor on account of business requiring all his attention. He was also adjutant of the 
First Tennessee Volunteers. He did not resign these military positions until he came 
to Birmingham, in October, 1886. 

Captain Byrne immediately set about to establish the Avondale Iron AVorks upon 
coming to Birmingham, and, as has been the case with him elsewhere, has already 
secured lucrative orders for work. The specialties of the works above mentioned are 
elevators, architectural iron work, steam heating, and general foundry and machine 
■work. 



BiographicaL 46 1 



Captain Byrne was married December 30, 1872, to Mary, daughter of Terrence 
McGuire, of Nashville, a well-known and prominent railroad contractor. Both himself 
and Mrs. Byrne are members of the Catholic Church. 

pp la *Pi rirl (TO A was born September Isj, 1854, at St. Louis, Mo. His youth 
'"'• "^ I l©l-^fcl''e) ^^^ spent at the schools of Richmond, Va., where his father 
had removed. He entered first, after leaving school, a tobacco manufactory in Rich- 
mond. His health failing under the duties of his position he went to Louisville, and 
entered the service of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. 

In 1881 Mr. Bridges came to Birmingham, to engage as bill clerk of the Rolling 
Mills. He was soon promoted to bookkeeper, and is now cashier, paying out many 
thousands of dollars weekly in the business of that large and constantly-growing cor- 
poration. 

Mr. Bridges has a bright future before him, and enjoys, in an eminent degree, the 
respect and confidence both of his friends and employers. 

He was married November 4, 1883, to Miss JIamie C. McLester, daughter of James 
McLester, of North Port, Ala. They have one child — James R. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Bridges are members of the Episcopal Church. 

(^orsv^rto C&i l^nPP was born near Montgomery, Ala., in 1841. His ancestors 
^ e3 jCU. were Virginians. His father and his mother, Eliza Jane 

Pollard, came to Alabama when they had to travel all the way in stages. The latter came 
to visit her brother. Colonel Charles T. Pollard. When they were married they returned 
to Virginia, and celebrated their nuptials there. On his father's side he is connected with 
General Washington, and on the unveiling of the latter's monument in Washington 
City, a few years since, he was invited, as one of the living descendants of the Wash- 
ington family, to be present. His family are also connected with Bishop Proteus, at 
one time Bishop of London, England. His father was, for many years, a practicing 
lawyer in Montgomery, Ala., and for the last five years of bis life was clerk of the 
supreme court of Alabama. He died in 1858. His mother died in 1870. 

Mr. Ball's early life was spent in Montgomery, and he obtained his education in the 
private schools in that city. But the war coming on he entered the Confederate ser- 
vice, under the lamented Colonel J. H. Clanton, as sergeant major of his regiment of 
cavalry. After the battle of Shiloh he was transferred to the Eighth Arkansas Regi- 
ment, and was a member of the stafi" of General John H. Kelley, who was the young- 
est brigadier general in the Confederate service, and was also an Alabamian. 

Young Ball was at the battle of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Perryville, Chickamauga, and 
took part in all the fights from Dalton to Atlanta, and in other hard-fought battles, up 
to the close of the war. He was not wounded during the whole time, and came out of 
the war as major. 

He returned home in April, 1865, was ticket agent, and, at one time, auditor of the 
Alabama & Florida Railroad, now the Mobile & Montgomery division of the Louis- 
ville & Nashville system. He held this position, at Montgomery, for twelve years. 
From 1877 to 1881 he was mostly in the lumber business. In 1881 he went to Eufaula, 
Ala., and organized and built an oil mill there, and, in 1882, the oil mills at Albany, 
Ga. He was general manager of both, with office at Eufaula, and sustained this rela- 
tion to them five years. 

In the latter part of July, 1886, he came to Birmingham, and purchased a consid- 
erable interest in the Wharton Flouring Mills, and, on November 20th, 1886, was made 
president of the milling company. Since ass^uming control of these mills their sales 



462 Jefferson County. 



have increased in a tremendous ratio, and they are, under his management, one of the 
most thoroughly enterprising and progressive manufacturing concerns of Birmingham. 

Mr. Ball was married May, 1872, to Miss Hattie G. Mays, who was living at the 
time at Augusta, Ga., but who is a native of Montgomery, being a daughter of the late 
Judge Thomas Sumter Mays, and to them three children have been born. 

Mr. Ball belongs to the Andrew Jackson Lodge of Masons, Montgomery, Ala. 

Both he and Mrs. Ball are members of the Episcopal Church. 



pft 



'P' ^/^■R'PP'nrfoi* senior proprietor of the Birmingham Brewery, 
II ip ^Cn.11 linger J j^ ^ thrifty and enterprising citizen and busi- 
ness man. He is a native of Germany, where he was born in 1831, and where he 
resided until over twenty years of age. Emigrating to America, in the year 1851, he 
first located in Ohio, and followed his trade of baker in Sandusky for two years. 

In 1853 he removed to Louisville, Ky., and continued in the bakery business for a 
number of years. In 1865, in connection with Zang and Miller, they organized the 
Phcenix Brewery, of that city, of which Mr. Schillinger was made superintendent, and 
which he conducted very successfully until 1883, when he dispased of his interest. 

The same year he decided to locate in Birmingham, and the following year, 1884, 
he built his present works, and has established one of the most prosperous industries 
of the Magic City. 

Mr. Schillinger has been remarkably successful in his business since coming to Bir- 
mingham, and has accumulated a handsome fortune. His brewing interests increased 
nntil he was forced to enlarge his capacity, and he has at present a model establish- 
ment, a more complete sketch of which appears in another portion of this work. 

Mr. Schillinger has also been fortunate in real estate transactions, in which he has 
profited largely. He owns considerable property in Louisville, Ky., which he is trying 
to dispose of, to reinvest in the Magic City, which he has great confidence in, and in 
which he proposes to make his home. 

He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and I, 0. 0. F. fraternities. Successful 
and enterprising in business, social and genial in his relations with his fellow man, he 
ranks as one of the solid men of Birmingham. 

Mr. Schillinger was married in Louisville, Ky., in 1855, to Miss Kathrine Jenne. 
Four children are now hving — August, Louis, Erwin, and Emma. 

AUGUST SCHILLINGER, treasurer of the brewery, and manager of the city 
trade, was born in Louisville in 1858, and was educated in the public schools of that 
city. His first business experience was in the bakery of his father, and he was subse- 
quently employed in the Phcenix Brewery, where he learned all of the details of that 
business. 

Upon coming to Birmingham he was given an interest in the business of his 
father, and placed in charge of the city trade. By uniform courtesy and attention to 
the wants of his customers, he has contributed, in a marked degree, to the popularity 
of his product, and assisted materially in establishing its present high reputation. 

He is one of the most popular of the young men of the Magic City, adding to a 
pleasing address good businesss methods. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., the K. 
of G. R., the K. of P., and the German Society. 

Mr. Schillinger was married in 1880 to Miss Mary Zabel, of Louisville, and has one 
child, Emma. 



BiograpJiical. 463 



LOUIS SCHILLINGER was born in Louisville in 1860, and in early years learned 
the baker's trade from his father, following that avocation until the business was dis- 
posed of. He then entered the brewery which his father had established there. 

Deciding to become proficient and practical in every branch of that trade, he went 
to Cincinnati, and entered the celebrated establishment of the Moerlein Brewing Com- 
pany, where he remained until he became thoroughly conversant with the secrets of 
brewing. 

Returning to Louisville he was placed in charge of the Phnenix Brewery, as fore- 
man, and held that position until he came to Birmingham with his father, to establish 
their present business, in the building up of which he has proven an important factor. 
He attends to the brewing, and is the efficient general manager and superintendent of 
the entire works. 

In 1884 he was united in marriage with Miss Hannah Conradi, of Cincinnati. 

ERWIN SCHILLINGER was born in Louisville, Ky., in 1862, and, like his 
brothers, has been familiar with the brewing business since his youth. He has the 
exclusive charge of the bottling works connected with the brewery, and devotes his 
entire attention to the duties connected therewith. He has a large patronage, and is 
extending that branch of the business over a wide scope of territory. 

He is also married, being united to Miss Bertha Botzin, of Louisville, in 1886. 

With his brothers he has an interest in the business, and is the secretary for the 
company. 

Mr. Schillinger is a young man with good business habits, and has the faculty of 
making and retaining friends. 

CJ, . _ O '\rsr\o r ^^® born in Wales in 1846. He first went to school in his 
As* (§) J native town until he was sixteen, and then apprenticed 

himself at Lanelly, England, to learn mechanical and civil engineering and draughting. 
He was under the supervision of Mr. Joseph Mayberry, one of the most distinguished 
engineers of his time. After leaving this place of training lie became chief engineer of 
the Cork Navigation Company, of Cork, Ireland, and after two years' service was made 
chief engineer for Logan & Hemmingway, contractors for the East India Dock, at 
Cardiff, England, and the Cardiff & Canphilly Railroad. In the spring of 1868 he came 
to America in the service of the Guion Steamship Line, but after two trips remained in 
this country. He worked as a journeyman machinist, and subsequently took charge 
of the Spuyten Duyvil Rolling Mills, and was next connected with the Dixon Manufac- 
turing Company. 

He satisfactorily held a responsible place with the Delaware & Western Railroad 
as master mechanic, up to 1877. At this time he came South, and was at Jackson, 
Tenn., some months as master mechanic of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Shops, but was 
forced to resign on account of failing health. He then worked for the Rome Iron 
Works, of Chattanooga, Tenn., for two years. In February, 1880, he came to Birming- 
ham, in company with Mr. W. B. Caldwell, president of the Birmingham Rolling Mills, 
and was there eighteen months as constructing engineer and superintendent of the 
placing of machinery. To him was due the plans and specifications by which tliese 
mills were built. He was then superintendent of the Linn Iron Works. 

In 1882 he became general superintendent and constructing engineer for the Brier- 
field Iron Works, Brierfield, Ala., and discharged its responsible duties, in wliich he 
had the building and care of a large rolling mill and nail factory, a furnace and a coal 
mine for three years. In May, 1886, he returned to Birmingham, and took the leading: 



464 Je_fferso7i Comity. 



part in organiziag the Excelsior Foundry and Macliine Sliops, and was its first president. 
Upon its reorganization, in 1.S87, he was made its general manager. Mr. Jones is the 
inventor of a coal presser, a valve indicator, and a patent tram-car wheel and axle, and 
from the latter named he will no doubt reap a large sum. 

Mr. Jones was married in April, 1865, at Swansea, England. He has three children 
living— Mabel, Bryce, and Agnes. Mr. Jones and the members of his family are 
Presbyterians. 

(^ftarPex^ ®\f/, ©WooiL '* ^"^' °^ "^® progressive young men identified 
Y * Y with Birmingham. He was born in Pittsburg, 

Pa., Nov. 4, 1863, but in ISGG his father's family moved to New Orleans. Hi.s father, 
R. D. Wood, and his mother, Miss Mariam Widney, were both natives of Pittsburg. 
Previous to going to New Orleans his father was an extensive coal dealer, and has 
followed the same busine.ss ever since, and owns extensive coal yards both in New 
Orleans and Baton Rouge. Young Wood's early life was spent in the former city, and 
his first educational advantages received there. On his mother's death, in 1873, he 
■went to Pittsburg and spent four years at school. Returning to Louisiana he was four 
years a student at the State University, and devoted himself to those studies which 
bore especially on the subject of engineering. He finished his studies in civil engineer- 
ing at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., in 1884. 

He then went into the coal business with his father, and here made practical appli- 
cation of his training as an engineer. He remained with his father from the fall of 
1884 until the spring of 1886. In April of that year, he came to Birmingham on a pros- 
pecting trip, and returned the following month, and at once organized the Birmingham 
Bridge Company, of which he is the general manager. 

The filling of so important a position is at once the highest testimony to his 
business capacity and ability. No enterprise from its inception has had a more flat- 
tering history, and more hopeful indications of its continuance. 

Mr. Wood was married October 14, 1886, to Miss Ida E., daughter of Mr. P. W. 
Pettiss, of New Orleans. Her father is one of the leading business men. Mrs. Wood 
is a member of the Methodist Church. 

W/'tt j j k -r x fsyi T^ n \ T T r^ r\-Kt ^as born near Yorkville, South Carolina, 
WILLIAM D. WnWSOn July 23, 1841. His father, S. A. Dawson, 
was a native of South Carolina, and his mother, Mary S. Hoggs, was a native of North 
Carolina, and was born near Greensboro. In his eighth year his father moved to 
Tennessee, near Knoxville, and farmed there until his death, carrying on, also, building 
as a contractor. There were five children born to his parents — Anna, Mary, William, 
Amanda, and Elizabeth. His father met a tragic death a few years ago in Tennessee, by 
falling from a wagon, and a younger brother was accidentally killed on the railroad. 

The first schooling that William ever received was in his tenth year at Contumant 
Springs, in an old-fashioned log schoolhouse. In his twelfth year he left this school, and 
attended night school in Knoxville, where his father had moved in 1857. His edu- 
cation from this time was due to his personal efforts. He worked in the day and went 
himself to school at night. A noted part of his boyhood experience in Knox\ille was 
the selling of Brownlow's famous work, The Great Iron Wheel Examined. As all read- 
er.s are aware, this was a reply to the Great Iron Wheel. For some time he sold as 
many as he could carry in his arms as the result of a single evening's work. His com- 
panion in this predatory merchandise was James Brownlow, a son of the noted author, 
and he had the satisfaction of outstripping his competitor. At the age of sixteen he 



Biographical. 465 



went into a foundry in Knoxville, and served an apprenticeship of more than five years, 
but during all this time he continued to go to night school. At the end of this time he 
went to Chattanooga, and worked in a foundry and machine shop, and as this was in 
1862, he did a great deal of work for the Confederate Government. He was in Chatta- 
anooga when the Federal General Buell shelled the town. In the fall of 1863, he re- 
turned to Knoxville, and worked there for a short time, and then started on a visit to 
relatives in Appanoosa County, Iowa. In pas.sing through Louisville, Kentucky, and a 
favorable opportunity presenting itself, he went to work in an agricultural implement 
factory. Soon after this he was taken sick with the small pox, from which he was 
seriously ill for many weeks. After his recovery he worked in Louisville for a short 
time, and then went to Nashville and worked for several months, and during this time 
enjoyed the satisfying celebrity of receiving the largest wages of any foundryman or 
machinist in Nashville. He soon returned to Louisville and engaged to work for a 
stove manufacturing establishment, and continued to work at the stove manufactories 
in that city until 1870, and on account of the numerous strikes, wliich, of course, created 
confusion among the workmen as well as trouble with the proprietors of the factories, 
he quit the business for a period of ten years. During this time he followed various 
callings, but his principal business was the collection of debts. He organized one of the 
most successful collecting agencies in Louisville, and made a good deal of money. 

In 1882 ilr. Dawson relumed to his old business, and was employed with Phillips, 
Burttorff Company, of Nashville. He then returned to Louisville, and went to work 
for the John G. Baxter Stove JNIanufactory, and while in this establishment proved his 
great skill as a molder. At various times he was offered responsible positions but re- 
fused them. After the death of Mr. Baxter he was made general superintendent, and has 
continued with the same company ever since. On the organization of the John G. Bax- 
ter Stove Manufacturing Company in Birmingham, after its removal from Louisville, he 
was made general manager, and no officer connected with the establishment has more 
fully the confidence of the company. 

Mr. Dawson was married in November, 1865, to Mrs. Emma Wallace, a daughter of 
Mr. J. G. Hewitt, one of the best known fouudrymen of Louisville. He has two chil- 
dren — a boy. Clifford Preston, and a girl, Alice, who are to him the sacred relics of 
a happy wedlock. 

Mr. Dawson is a member of the Methodist Church. He has taken all the degrees 
of the York Right in Masonry, and belongs to the Knights Templar. 



U/illiam C. Sl^id^li^r 



1833. After obtaining the rudiments of an English edu- 
cation he became a printer in the office of the Cincinnati Times for five years. He then 
determined to learn the machinist and blacksmith trade, and with this purpose entered 
a machine shop in Cincinnati, and spent several year's apprenticeship, and followed his 
trade up to the breaking out of the war. He entered as a private of Company B of the 
Thirty-fourth Ohio Regiment of Infantry, under the command of Col. John T. Toland. 
He was in the war three years from September loth, 1861. He was in the campaign 
throughout West Virginia, and the Shenandoah Valley under Gen. Sheridan, and passed 
through without receiving a wound. After the war he merchandised at Higginsport, 
Ohio, for several years, and then resumed work at his trade, in which he was employed 
at the same place until the fall of 1880; then farmed in Lewis County, Ky., for 
four years; was the assistant superintendent of the Champion Bridge Works at 
Wilmington, Ohio, and was with them until the beginning of the year 1886. In 
January of that year he came to Birmingham, and was interested with prominent 



466 Jefferson County. 



citizens here in the organization of the Southern Bridge Works. He was made superin- 
tendent, and from the starting of the first machine the business has grown rapidly 
until these works are looked upon as one of the very substantial enterprises of Birm- 
ingham. These facts are the best testimonials of Mr. Shideler's skill as a workman. 

Mr. Shideler was married in March, 18.5.5, to Miss Rachel Palmer, of Cincinnati, 
Ohio. The latter is a member of the Baptist Church ; the former belongs to the IMasons 
and Odd Fellows. 

ParlriC U D^OCO was born May 4, 1847, at Eutaw, the county seat of Greene, 
\ -^ / ' V -^ N one of the wealthiest of the agricultural counties of Alabama. 

He is the son of E. and Charlotte M. Reese, nee McKinstry, the father a native of 
South Carolina and the mother of Connecticut. The father was a carriage builder. 
While at school in his fifteenth year, Carlos H. enlisted in Captain Relan's company of 
artillery, Confederate States Army. He remained in the service until the close of the 
war. Returning to Eutaw he engaged with his father in the latter's trade. He after- 
ward set up in Demopolis on his own account. Next he bought land in Pickens County 
and became a farmer. In four years he gave up this, sold his farm, and returned to his 
trade in Corinth, Miss. 

June, 1882, Mr. Reese came to Birmingham, and began work at his trade on a small 
Bcale. He now employs eight hands, and his business is increasing and assuming large 
proportions. 

September 24, 1870, Mr. Reese married Miss Mary Clinton, daughter of James C 
C inton, of Pickens County. They have two children — Fannie C. and Lottie M. Mr. 
and Mrs. Reese are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is 
Buperintendent of the Sunday school of that church at Avondale. 

Jr^hn \to\YoY\ cashomat Lincolnton, North Carolina, November 27, 1836. His 
/ ' / father and paternal grandfather had made iron after the primitive 

customs, their machinery being turned by water. They had made some shot and shell 
for the South Carolina nullifiers of 1832, whose virtues were never tested. 

John went to the schools around his native place, and studied at a public school in 
New York for eighteen months. 

In Cass County, Georgia, now Bartow, he learned the practical work of a molder. 
After residing in various other places he went back to Cass County in 1801, and was 
there when the war broke out. Early in the war he happened to be in Jacksonville, 
Alabama, where he heard Hon. J. L. M. Curry, Member of Congress, make a war 
speech under a flag that had the smoke of the first Manassas on its folds. Becoming 
enthused with the spirit of the occasion, he volunteered in Selden's Battery. The bat- 
tery was sent to Mobile. John Veitch and his brothers, being found out as skilled men 
in iron work, were put in the arsenal at Selma, where they remained hard at work until 
captured and paroled by Wilson's men in the last days of the war. 

Mr. Veitch had been connected in responsible positions with the furnaces in and 
around Birmingham since they were built, until he voluntarily retired to go into the 
saw-mill business, which he now conducts successfully. 

He was married December, 1858, to Miss Amanda Brigman, in Talladega, and they 
have a large family. He is a Mason in good standing. 



Biographical. dfol 



JOK^nh R^ihman ^^'''^ '^°''" '^^ Covington, Kentucky, March 26, 1857, and is a 
Y I I son of Jacob and Emelia Meyers Beitman. His parents 

were natives of Germany, and came to America in 1850, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio^ 
In 1861 the family removed to Kansas City, Mo., where Joseph attended the common 
schools, and afterward took a course in the Kansas City Business College. After com- 
pleting his education, Mr. Beitman apprenticed himself to B. Davidson, of Kansas 
City, to learn the cigar business. After three years' apprenticcshii) he engaged in the 
cigar-making business for himself, and was very successful. In 1876 he formed a part- 
nership with his brother, Adam Beitman, for the purpose of carrying on a wholesale 
cigar business. His brother died in 1879, and he then admitted Isaac, another brother, _ 
to a partnership in the business, which was continued under the old firm name of Beit- 
man Bros. They opened a branch house in Birmingham in July, 1886, and have been 
very successful. Mr. Isaac Beitman has charge of the Kansas City house. The firm 
handles mainly Eastern goods, and travel six men from Kansas City and three from 
Birmingham. Mr. Beitman is a member of the Jewish church. 

Tohn n Vx">A\l is a native of Ireland, and was born in the County Clare, April 
Jur[r| r . Q1c1u|^ 29, ISSS. He came to America when quite young with his 
father and mother, who settled in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He lived there until he was 
thirteen years old, and then went to New York City with his parents. He attended the 
public schools in both places until he was fourteen years old, and then bound himself 
as an apprentice to learn the iron molder's trade, and served seven years' apprentice- 
ship. Since then he has worked in all the principal cities in this country at his trade. 
He came to Birmingham in October, 1886, and was one of the organizers of the Avon- 
dale Iron Works, in which he has an interest. He is a molder of much skill, and will 
here, in this progressive city, find the best field for his labors. 

The Biriuinghani %km Bottling Works, IT^^Z^^^TT^ 

of carbonated waters, and they have an establishment, which is a model of its kind, 
located on Avenue C and Twenty-second Street. 

The business was commenced in 1884 by J. H. Davis and John Herbert, under the 
firm name of Davis & Herbert, on Avenue G and Eighteenth Street. This firm con- 
ducted the business for four months, when Mr. Herbert retired and S. H. Worcester 
was admitted as a partner, forming the present firm. 

Their business prospered, and in November, 1886, they were forced to enlarge the 
capacity of their works and had their present commodious quarters built for them. 
The building is especially arranged, is 32 x 40 feet, and fitted up with the newest and 
most improved machinery from Boston. Their goods are justly celebrated for their 
purity and excellence, and their trade is now extending outside of the city to points . 
reached by the railroads. They also have a large city trade, which is increasing daily. 
Their capacity for business is unlimited, practically, and their specialties are mineral 
waters, ginger ale, soda, sarsaparilla, and cider. 

MR. DAVIS is a native of Ohio, where he was born in 1851, and, when seventeen 
years of age he went West, and for nine years was engaged in various enterprises in 
the Rocky Mountains. He came to Birmingham in the fall of 1884, and has since been 
in active business, as will be seen from this sketch. 



.468 Jefferson Coimty. 



S. H. WORCESTER was born in Newport, Kentucky, March 18, 1864, and is a son of 
Joseph and Mary (Lock) Worcester, of English nativity. His father is a machinist, and 
since 1882 a resident of Birmingham. He is now master mechanic at the Birmingham 
Rolling Mills. 

Our subject learned the trade of an engineer machinist at Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
also attended the Hollingsworth College, where he took a course in engineering and 
drafting. He was employed in the steel mills of Covington, Kentucky, and in 1882 
came to Birmingham and worked in the rolling mills for two years. He went subse- 
quently to Tuscaloosa, where he filled the position of sanitary engineer one year. 
Returning to Birmingham he was employed at his trade in the Birmingham Iron 
Works a short time, and then formed his present business association where he has 
been very successful. 

N "Tl 1_P^„G a4*„J4^^.. a voung manufacturer, is a native of Philadel- 

bama. He was employed as a commercial agent about seven years, after which, in 
1882, he was engaged in the liquor trade on the corner of Second Avenue and 
Twentieth Street, where he continued three years. He then embarked in the man- 
ufacture of mineral waters, soda, sarsaparilla, cider, and all varieties of carbonated 
waters. He has achieved a success in this line, and his goods have an excellent 
reputation for purity and excellence. His trade is increasing daily and extends to 
the country districts. His place of business is on Third Avenue, between Eighteenth 
and Nineteenth Streets, where he has an establishment especially adapted to his busi- 
ness, with all modern machiner)-. 

Mr. Hochstadter was married in May, 1881, to Miss Jennie Fies, of Birmingham. 
He is a member of the K. of P., A. O. U. W., and the I. O. B. B. 



Biographical. 469 



r^ni-r\o A W F^PPon the head of one of the wholesale groceries of Birming- 
(&arne.& on. orVliei^, j^^^^_ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^[,3 proprietors of the first whole- 
sale house in the Magic City. He came from Southern stock, and is of English and 
Scotch extraction. His father, Edward Allen, was a native of North Carolina; his 
mother, whose maiden name was Rebecca Williams, was born in Maryland. 

James A. Allen was born in June, 1836, in Hancock County, Georgia, and his 
early education was commenced in private schools. At the age of twelve he came 
to Alabama, and was a farmer's boy, and at the age of thirty entered the grocery 
house of Joseph & Allen, and thoroughly informed himself with every branch of that 
trade. Subsequently he formed a partnership with James M. Smith, and was suc- 
cessfully engaged in the wholesale grocery line in Montgomery until 1871. In the 
latter year he came to what is now Birmingham, and formed a partnership with A. 
Marree, one of the first citizens and business men to locate there. This firm started 
the first grocery house, their store being located on First Avenue and Nineteenth 
Street. Mr. Allen soon after purchased the interest of Mr. Marree, and conducted 
the business with remarkable success under the firm name of James A. Allen & Co., 
until 1883, when the present house of Allen, Scott & Co. was organized, by the 
admission of W. C. and B. C. Scott into the firm. Their business grew to such 
proportions that in 18S6 Mr. Allen erected, on the south side of First Avenue, a three- 
story brick building, which extends from First to Morris Avenue, and is 27Jxl82J 
feet. It is one of the finest business blocks in the city, and was designed to meet 
the demands of the immense business which this progressive firm has established. 

Mr. Allen was a gallant member of the Sixth Alabama Regiment during the late 
war, enlisting as a private in Company E, in 1861. He was wounded at the battle of 
Chancellorsville, in 1863, which disabled him from active duties, but he remained in the 
service until the close of the war. 

Mr. Allen has been thrice married, and has two children living — Claude A. and 
James A. The family are members of the First Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. 
Allen has served as elder for several years. 

lT^(^TiT-.TT M ^1% T^ fvrT^T-ii-> wasbom in North Port, Tuscaloosa Countv, Ala., 

dIOSEPH #lCirESTEK July 27, 1848. 

His father came to Alabama in the early history of the State, from North Carolina, 
and settled in North Port. His mother, whose maiden name was Jane Simonton, also 
came from the same State when quite young. 

At the time of the birth of the subject of our sketch, Alabama was in a prosperous 
condition, and his particular locality was one of the most highly favored portions of the 
State, both as to its temporal affairs and as to its people, who would have adorned any 
locality as being possessed of all those characteristics which constitute a highly refined 
and cultivated population. North Port, his home, was separated from Tuscaloosa by the 
Black Warrior River. The latter place was then, and always has been, noted for its 



.470 Jefferson County. 



educational institutions, and its name has been synonymous, almost from the founding 
of the town, with the highest standard of learning. Both these towns are at the head 
of steam navigation. 

His father was a merchant, and has always conducted a prosperous business, and 
carried on a trade with the interior for a distance of over a hundred miles. 

Joseph attended the high schools of Tuscaloosa, and when not engaged in his 
studies clerked in his father's store. He prepared himself for college and attended the 
University of Alabama, then in Tuscaloosa. He was a cadet at the university when it 
was burned up, with its magnificent library, by the Federal forces, under General Crox- 
ton, in 1865. 

In the year 1866 he entered the Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va. 
This institution was then under the administration of General Robert E. Lee. Joseph 
•graduated in 1869, after taking a three years' course. After returning home he clerked 
in his father's store three years, and then was assigned to a position in the First 
National Bank of Tuscaloosa. He became cashier of the bank and treasurer of the 
Alabama Insane Hospital for a period of eight years. In the discharge of the duties of 
this position he acquitted himself with marked ability. His duties were highly 
responsible, and he proved himself worthy of the trust. 

In the fall of 1881 he gave up his position and came to Birmingham and engaged in 
the grocery business, purchasing Mr. J. M. Maxwell's half interest in the house of J. 
M. Maxwell & Co. The Rev. J. A. VanHoose was the company of the firm. The new 
firm is known as McLester & VanHoose. This was the second exclusively wholesale 
grocery house established in Birmingham, and iis to the volume of business it transacts' 
it can be said that it stands second to none. 

Mr. McLester was married to Miss Nannie Somerville, a niece of Judge Somerville, 
-of the Alabama Supreme Bench, some years since. She, like himself, was a native of 
Tuscaloosa, and belongs to one of the oldest and most highly respected families in the 
■ State. 

This union has been an exceedingly happy one. Mr. McLester is the father of 
several children, and his home, one of the most charming in the city, is the seat of 
great domestic happiness. 

No young merchant in this city looks out upon a more encouraging future. 

of Fayette County, Alabama, and his mother, who belonged to one of the old Virginia 
families, came from Campbell Court House, in that State. 

James studied under several of the most noted teachers who ever taught in Tusca- 
loosa. Among these are the Rev. R. D. Nevins, Prof. W. C. Richardson, and Prof. B. 
F. Meek, LL. D.,, one of the most finished English scholars in the South. At the age 
of fifteen young VanHoose began to make his own li^dng, and when not working for a 
livelihood was engaged with his studies. He naturally desired to excel, and with this 
laudable spirit devoted himself to them with no uncommon assiduity. His life con- 
tinued in this manner, alternating between work and study up to the year 1871. In 
July of that year he entered the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. He 
-was educated here for the ministry of the Episcopal Church. He distinguished himself 
for unflagging devotion to his studies, and after an arduous course of five years, four and 
a half of which were spent in the academical department, and the remainder in the 
theological, he received the diploma of graduation in 1875 in the former department. 
After leaving the university he returned to Tuscaloosa, and at once set about to prepare 



Biog7-aphical. 471 



himself to stand an examination preparatory to entering the ministry. He studied the 
Greek Testament, unfortunately printed in very small type, a month prior to the time 
when the examination was to take place. During this time he only allowed himself a 
few hours sleep out of the twenty-four. At length he became stricken with temporary 
paralysis of the muscles of his eyes, caused by excessive use of the eyes in reading this 
email-print Greek Testament. As soon as his sight was sufficiently restored he stood 
the examination with credit to himself, and was ordained in St. John's Church in 
Mobile, of which the Rev. T. J. Beard, now the rector of the Church of the Advent in 
Birmingham, was rector. This ordination took place in the early part of 1876, and Mr. 
VanHoose at once came to Birmingham and became the pastor of the Church of the 
Advent in February, 1876, also taking charge of the missions at Athens, Decatur, and 
Trinity. He was the second minister of this church, the first being the Rev. P. A. 
Fitts, who after this went to Tennessee. Mr. VanHoose remained in nominal charge of 
this church until August of that year. Although his impaired eyesight disabled him 
from reading or studying, he worked with great earnestness and zeal in behalf of his 
church, and, though with it for so short a period, left a very sensible impress behind 
him of the work he had accomplished. 

In October, 1876, he returned to Sewanee, Tennessee, and became the General 
Agent of the Endowment Fund of the University of the South, and filled this position 
until August, 1877. He was then elected Proctor of the University, and by virtue of 
the position became responsible for the discipline of the institution. This was, indeed, 
for so young a man, a great trust and care, but as in every other capacity in which he 
had been called on to act, he proved himself both equal to and worthy of the charge. 
It was in 1879 that he gave up this position and returned to Tuscaloosa, and after 
remaining here a short time came to Birmingham, and with the consent and approval 
of the bishop of the diocese of Alabama went into temporary secular employment 
until the time, if ever, when his eyesight would be sufficiently restored to enable him 
to go on in his chosen calling. The best medical advice since then seems to make that 
hope a very doubtful one, the injury in all probability being for life. In February, 

1880, Mr. VanHoose went into the wholesale grocery trade in Birmingham with Mr. J. 
M. Maxwell, of Tuscaloosa. The firm was known as J. M. Maxwell & Co., and was 
among the first wholesale hou.ses of this kind established in Birmingham. In August, 

1881, Mr. Maxwell having died, Mr. Joseph McLe.ster, of Tuscaloosa, purchased his half 
interest, and the new firm was known as McLester & VanHoose. It is one of the most 
prosperous houses in the city, and its volume of business constantly increasing. 

Since his residence in Birmingham, Mr. VanHoose has been identified with every 
movement, either actively or with influence, calculated to build up Birmingham's inter- 
ests. He was very active in establishing a board of trade for the city, and was its first 
president. He was also one of the main factors in organizing and holding the Alabama 
State Exposition in 1884. In 1886 he was one of the prime movers in putting on foot 
the Birmingham and Pratt Mines street railway, and was elected president and general 
manager. Here again he gave evidence of his ability to conduct to a successful issue 
any enterprise to which he saw fit to devote his energies. This road has steadily 
increased in popular favor and patronage, until now it is one of the most progressive in 
•the city. Mr. VanHoose, as president of the company, in all of his acts has shown 
himself thoroughly capable. He was also the originator of the East Lake Land Com- 
pany, and with the able assistance of Mr. Robert Jemison organized and i)ut in shape 
that company, which has since proved a wonderful success. 

Ever since Mr. Vanlloose's residence in Birmingham the second time, he has had 
charge of several missions in behalf of his church. Among these we may mention 



472 fefferson Cotmty. 



Decatur, Gadsden, Athens, Pratt Mines, and others. He also acts as assistant to the 
rector of the Church of the Advent in this city, having been assigned to this duty by 
the bishop. He is ever ready to respond to the calls of duty. It is due him to state 
that ever since the affecting of his eyesight, as above mentioned, he has never had per- 
fect use of it, and even now he cannot engage in study at all. It i.s owing to this cause 
that he was compelled to give up the active and continuous work of his high calling. 
Mr. VanHoose's domestic relations are in the highest sense pleasant and happy. He 
was married in June, 1877, to Miss Jennie McLester, of North Port, Alabama, a daughter 
of one of its most successful and respected merchants. He is the father of several 
children, all of whom are living. 

Since the foregoing was in type the Birmingham and Pratt Mines Street Railway 
Company has bought a controlling interest in the Birmingham Street Railway Company, 
and the two have consolidated, the former name remaining the name of the new con- 
solidation. 

This, it will be seen, places Mr. VanHoose in charge, as president and general 
manager, of one of the strongest street-railway systems in the South. To his ability 
and good management this friendly and mutually agreeable consolidation is mainly due. 
We predict for the new company, under Mr. VanHoose's management, a splendid suc- 
cess for the stockholders, while at the same time so managed as to have a careful regard 
for the jniblic's best interests. 

lyrilli'^Tm I®) (DqIfiIsJO '^ ^ native Alabamian, and was born in New 
VV llllell-M I4. iTiellCJl|jU Limestone Septembers, 1856. His birthplace is 
the county seat of Limestone County, one of the finest portions of North Alabama. 
His father, James M. Malone, is a descendant of Virginia stock, but came to this State 
at an early date. His mother is an Alabamian by birth, and her maiden name was 
Jane Matthews. 

Our subject attended the schools at his home until attaining his fourteenth year, 
and then entered the Athens College, and went steadily to school for two years, or until 
he was sixteen years old, and then embarked in active life by accepting a clerkship in 
the general merchandise store of George Mason & Co., in Athens. He gave them eight 
years of faithful service, and then made a venture which has proved to him a most 
fortunate one. It was at this time that he came to ciist his lot in Birmingham, and his 
history from this time onward has been gratifying and very successful. At the first, he 
formed a copartnership with W. IMason in the retail grocery business, and at the end of 
the year Mr. B. F. Roden was added to the firm, and the new firm style was known as 
Roden, Mason & Malone. One year from the time of the formation of this firm, Mr. 
Roden bought out his partners' interests. Mr. Malone then formed a copartnership 
with Mr. T. P. Wimberly, under the firm name of Wimberly & Malone, and engaged in 
the wholesale grocery trade. This was among the earliest houses to engage in this 
branch of trade in Birmingham. It continued for several years, and had a successful 
experience, when the firm was dissolved, and Messrs. Adler bought Mr. Wimberly's 
interest, and subsequently formed the present cojiartnership with Morris and Albert 
Adler, of Baltimore, the new house being known as Adler, Malone & Co. This firm 
shares as extensive a trade as any in this city, and this, like many other instances, serves 
most admirably to show the worth of Birmingham's young men as the progressive fac- 
tors of her present and future greatness. 

Mr. Malone has not confined his energies to commercial life alone. Since his life 
here he has looked after the management of a large farm he owns in Limestone County. 
While he does not denominate himself a real estate dealer in the strict sense of the term. 



Biographical. 475 



yet, to the extent that he has given it his attention, he has been very successful, and 
owns some valuable property in the city. 

Mr. Malone belongs to the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the M. E. 
Church, South. 



\w\ TITI? W/" iS^AA/TM '^^'^ born in New Orleans, October 24, 1859. 
)n\-i\.ts\\ W. IPAVIJX father was of French descent, and his moth 



His 
mother of 

Irish parentage. His father has followed the sea as a steamship captain for many years. 
The subject of this sketch was reared in New Orleans, and was educated in the public 
schools of that city, graduating at the age of nineteen. He was then engaged as account- 
of-sales clerk in one of the largest cotton brokerage houses at that time in New Orleans, 
Messrs. Hanna & Barnett, remaining with them one year, when he resigned for the 
purpose of studying mechanics. He entered the New Orleans Foundry and Machine 
Shop, and after a course of study in the different departments of the foundry resigned 
and was engaged by W. L. Gushing, a large machinery dealer. Remaining with Mr. 
Gushing several years, acting in the capacity of traveling salesman and constructing 
engineer until the close of the Atlanta Exposition, then he was placed in full charge of 
the cotton machinery department for the Eagle Gotten Gin Company, of Bridgewater, 
Massachusetts, whom Mr. Gushing represented in the South. Through Mr. Davin's. 
skill and experience in operating this machine it was awarded the first prize. After the 
close of the Atlanta Exposition he obtained a more lucrative position with H. Dudley 
Coleman & Bro., of New Orleans, who, at that time, were doing the largest machinery 
and mill manufacturing business in the South. Mr. Davin remained in the employment 
of the above concern for a number of years. Resigning this position, which was that of 
traveling salesman and collector, he was appointed chief clerk in the office of the United 
States Construction Department in the Custom House, at New Orleans. Wishing to 
embark in business on his own account, he resigned this position and came to Birming- 
ham, in order to see what the prospects were for a machinery house. Recognizing at 
once that such a business would pay handsomely, he immediately leased a small store on 
Twentieth Street, near Third Avenue, where he put in stock a small supply of general 
machinery. Through his energy and indomitable will he succeeded in selling consid- 
erable machinery. 

He then took into partnership with him his old friend and office companion, Mr. 
Willis Shaw, of New Orleans. The business of this firm increased daily, and their store 
was inadequate for it. Mr. Davin made himself quite popular with every business man 
of Birmingham, and soon became one of the most enterprising citizens of the city. He 
has started several enterprises, which now net a very handsome income, and one of 
which is the American District Telegraph and Merchants' Police and Detective System. 
The entire city is strung with wires, all leading to his general business office. On each 
of the principal business corners he has a signal box, from which his patrolmen, con- 
stantly on duty, are required to send signals every half hour during the entire night. 
This system is recognized by every business man of the city. He is a favorite, both 
socially and in business circles. His manner impresses his hearers at once that he is a 
man of business qualities and good judgment. 

Mr. Davin married Miss Hattie L. Martin, of Brookhaven, Mississippi, November 
18th, 1885, and their union is a happy one. 

26 



4/6 Jeffersoji County. 



TYrilH^ ^fein^vf ^Tas born in Jackson, Mississippi, November 17, 1859. His 
W 1 1 1 1 © 1 1 el W father, John W. Shaw, was a North Carolinian. After mov- 
ing to JMississippi he became a merchant in Jackson for many years. His mother, 
Virginia L. Coleman, was a native of Louisiana. Willis Shaw was reared in Jackson, 
and educated in the New Orleans public schools and at Roanoke College, Salem, Vir- 
ginia. 

In 1871 he decided to follow the machinery business, and entered the large estab- 
lishment of his uncle, H. Dudley Coleman & Bro., of New Orleans, as office boy. He 
remained there for nearly fifteen years, during which time he acquired a thorough 
knowledge of the machinery business, and had full charge of their sales and corres- 
pondence. He left their employment in May, 1886, and came to Birmingham and 
formed a copartnership in the machinery business with Mr. W. W. Davin. The firm of 
Shaw & Davin has had high success, fuller details of which the sketch of W. W. Davin, 
in this volume explains. Willis Shaw is a member of Tau Chapter, Sigma Chi Fra- 
ternity, of Roanoke College, Virginia, and of Indivisible Friends' Commandery, No. 1, 
K. T., of New Orleans, Louisiana. 

He is a fine salesman, fond of his business, has many friends, and is one of the 
assured successes of the Magic City. 

Besides his investment in the machinery business Mr. Shaw has been equally for- 
tunate in his real estate ventures, having netted S55,000 out of a $5,000 investment, in 
five months. Willis Shaw is director in the Birmingham Paint JIanufacturing Com- 
pany, the Edison Electric and Illuminating Company, and the Talladega Land and 
Improvement Company. 

The firm of Shaw & Davin, although but nine months old, are well and favorably 
known throughout the South and have the entire confidence of all with whom they 
have business relations. They represent some of the largest manufactories in the Union. 
They are thorough, progressive, prompt, reliable, and courteous, and deserve the mag- 
nificent success they have achieved by their own vim, push, and energy. 

TIT LI TTptiin *^® subject of this sketch, is one of the youngest and most 
■ J^ ' IT" a ' enterprising young business men of JeflVrson County, who 

manages and superintends in person large manufacturing and business interests. 

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1861, where he was reared and educated, 
having graduated at the age of eighteen years. Like most young men in large cities 
Mr. Kettig, notwithstanding his fine education, for a long time found great difficulty 
in finding a suitable situation. He finally obtained employment, in a pork packing 
establishment, as a shipping clerk, at the insignificant salary of one dollar per week. 
But this did not discourage him. He set hard to work as if he was getting a princely 
salary, and in six weeks his employers increased his remuneration tenfold, and when, 
six months after, he accepted another position in a large manufacturing supply house, 
his old employers oflered the young man, then being only nineteen years old, an 
interest in the profits of their business if he would stay with them. But Mr. Kettig dis- 
liked the pork business, and set diligently to work learning the hardware and supply 
business as traveling agent, and afterward accepted a very responsible position from the 
largest hardware and mill supply firm in the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. 
Three years after Mr. Kettig, having established a large trade through the South and 
West, was induced to locate in Birmingham, and formed a copartnership with jMajor 
W. J. Milner, under the firm name of Milner & Kettig. This house, under his man- 
agement, rapidly assumed an immense importance to the trade of Birmingham, and 
its name is now well known throughout the entire South and West. Being possessed 



Biographical. 477 



of indomitable energy and great force of will power, Mr. Kettig always overcame 
obstacles in his path, which were often serious, and where many others would have 
been discouraged and given up the battle. Polite and courteous to everybody, he has 
made many friends in the Magic City who hold him in esteem. 

TC\ RMrtl/oll '^ another of the successful young business men reared in Bir- 
* ' \ mingham. He was born May 7th, 185.S, and is the youngest child 

of a family of five children, four of whom are now living-^Laura M., now Mrs. John 
F. Hanby, Orville C. (who died while a cadet at the State University), Martha M., now 
Mrs. S R. Truss, of Birmingham. His father, 0. S. Burwell, was a native of New 
Haven, Conn., but came to Alabama early in the thirties, and merchandised in Perry 
County two years, but came to Jefferson in 1836, and engaged in farming. His mother, 
Emily Massey, was a native of Jefferson County. 

The subject of this sketch was reared, and received his educational training in his 
native county. On arriving at the age when one may be considered about grown he 
left the parental roof, and engaged in the cotton trade for two years in the city of Nash- 
ville, Tenn. Returning to Jefferson he was employed as a clerk in the Irondale Iron 
Company's store, who had their works about eight miles east of the present city of 
Birmingham, and then clerked in a dry goods store in the city for one year. He wa8 
engaged in farming in the country, and in the latter year came to Birmingham and 
engaged in the retail wagon trade, and in 1884 became associated with S. W. Slaton and 
W. W. McGlathery, under the firm name of Slaton, McGlathery & Burwell. This firm 
is composed entirely of young men, and by their energy, perseverance, and commendable 
personal qualities, have established the only reliable and profitable wagon trade in 
Birmingham. They are also extensive handlers of cotton. 

Mr. Burwell was married in 1876 to Miss Bettie, daughter of Rev. F. M. Grace, 
now of Mansfield, Louisiana, and a granddaughter of Baylis E. Grace, Sr., one 
of the most venerable and respected citizens of Jefferson County. To this union four 
children have been born — Mary D., John E., Mettle G., and Lizzie R. 

Mr. Burwell is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and both himself and wife 
belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

As already indicated Mr. Burwell has been and is now among the successful young 
businessmen of Birmingham. This relates to the special business to which he has given 
his attention, and to those outside ventures in which he has taken part. He has accu- 
mulated desirable property, and among other things may be mentioned a choice tract 
of land near Birmingham, and desirable city property. 

Ua/nllhnn 7^ RortrtC '^^•iiufacturer and merchant, was born in Liverpool, 
jld/nillUl/ O. 1J\'^^>> England, in 1830, and is of Scotch-Irish descent. His 
father was for many years a tax collector in Liverpool, where the son attended the pub- 
lic schools until he was fourteen years of age. He next served an apprenticeship of 
iour years learning the foundry trade, and at the age of eighteen emigrated to America, 
where he worked as a journeyman at his trade for several years, traversing several 
.States. From 1855 to 1859 he followed the foundry business in Virginia, subsequently 
removing to Tennessee, worked at a foundry in Knoxville, and from thence went to 
Chattanooga, where he embarked in the foundry business, and cast the first gun made 
in Tennessee for the Confederate Government, also the first bomb shell. In 1862 he was 
placed in the foundry at the Shelby Iron Works, Shelby County, Alabama, and built 
munitions of war for the Confederacy until the close of the struggle. Mr. Beggs 
erected the first foundry and machine shops in Birmingham on lots purchased by him 



478 JeJferso7i County. 



in 1872, on First Avenue and Sixteenth Street. Since that period he has been one of its 
most active business men. He does all kinds of casting, and has established a stove 
manufactory, which is now one of the leading industries of the South. Mr. Beggs, being 
practical and thoroughly conversant with his branch of trade, is destined to be a leader 
in the many industrial features which are now centering in Birmingham. He married 
in 1855, Miss Susan R. Dunnervent, a native of Virginia. They are parents of eight 
children— George W., Hamilton T., Jr., John P., Josiah, Elizabeth R., Virginia L., Mary 
M., and Idia. Mr. Beggs is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Episcopal 
Church. 

GEORGE W. BEGGS was born in Virginia in January, 1856. He was a student in the 
schools of Birmingham until fifteen years of age, when he entered the East Tennessee 
University at Knoxville, where he completed his studies. He began his business career 
in the foundry of his father, where he has continued, and by devotion to his duties and 
good business qualifications has been advanced to a partnership and interest in the 
business. 

Mr. Beggs is an exemplary and promising young man, and a member of the Epis- 
copal Church. 

PIiItIt T W\ rrrl (\\\ ^^^ born in Polk County, Tennessee, September 25, 1861. 
Clljdll L. niguUli He is a son of Rev. J. A. and M. A. Higdon, nee Linder- 
man. His father is a distinguished Baptist clergyman. Elijah was taught in the com- 
mon schools of his native neighborhood, and at the high school in Dalton, Ga. At the 
age of fourteen he entered upon his business career as a clerk in a produce firm in 
Atlanta. After several years of employment in this capacity he was made a partner 
with his employer, and the firm name was W. J. Hudson & Co., wholesale dealers in 
produce. In the spring of 1884 Mr. Higdon came to Birmingham, and entered into the 
wholesale fruit business. His business prospered at once. In three years he had built 
a large business, and, his trade demanding larger facilities, he entered the store on 
Morris Avenue, from which his firm controls a large and growing trade in various parts. 
of the South. Since October, 1886, he has been associated in business with Mr. J. H. 
McCary. 

Mr. Higdon is a member of the Baptist Church. He belonged to the Gate City 
Guards, of Atlanta, and joined the Birmingham Rifles on taking up his residence in 
this city. 

September 11, 1880, when in his twentieth year, Mr. Higdon married Miss Alice, 
daughter of Frank and Sarah Coleman, of Tennessee, and they have one child, a eon.^ 

JQTIIPC W \hr[^liT\l is a representative of the class of educated Alabamians 
dlliCo n. iVlLL/diy of the new era. Born March, 1862, when the war 
between the States was in its earliest stages, his whole life has been spent under the 
social influences into which he has so largely entered to shape. 

Mr. McCary is a native of Chilton County, Alabama, the son of James F. and E. 
M. McCary, nee Lily. After passing through the common schools he completed his 
studies in the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College at Auburn. For six years 
thereafter he was employed as clerk in the Hotel Jackson, at Blount Springs. In Sep- 
tember, 1883, he came to Birmingham, to engage as clerk in the Relay House. In 1884 
he entered mercantile life in Birmingham as a grocer. In 1886 he formed a partnership 
with E. L. Higdon in the wholesale fruit and produce line. This business has been 
distinguished by rapid growth. The firm occupy a large and handsome building on 



Biographical. 479 



Morris Avenue, the leading wholesale street, and perhaps the best in its line in the 
South. They do a large and increasing business along the trunk lines of railroads lead- 
ing out of the city. 

Mr. McCary is one of the directors of the Birmingham National Bank, owns valua- 
ble real estate in Birmingham, and blocks of many of the best local stocks in the mar- 
ket. He owns valuable agricultural lands in the Valley of the Mississippi, situated in 
the State of Mississippi. He is a Knight of Pythias, and a worker in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church Sunday school, of which church he is a member. 

T-IpTITAr A^ Ppmr ^ prosperous representative of the wholesale trade of Bir- 
llL'llij Vi . 1 V^iij, mingham, is a native of Marion, Alabama, where he was 
born July 18, 1858. He is a son of Dr. Samuel and Salina (Jones) Perry, the former a 
native of North Carolina and the latter of Virginia. His father practiced medicine in 
Perry County for nearly thirty-four years, attaining a high position and reputation. 
He has recently moved to Birmingham, where he continues to practice. 

Henry W. was educated in the schools of Marion, Alabama, and subsequently 
entered Howard College, and finished his studies there. His first entrance into com- 
mercial life was as bookkeeper in a general merchandising house in Marion, Alabama, 
where he became familiar with business methods. He continued there five years. His 
next position was as salesman for C. W. Hooper & Co., wholesale grocers, of Selma, 
with whom he remained two years. He then resigned to enter business for himself. 
The thriving city of Birmingham attracted him, and in October, 1883, he opened a 
wholesale house for the cigar and tobacco trade. Associated with him is Mr. J. J. 
Hooper, the firm name being H. W. Perry & Co. Their business was commenced in 
the Moore, Moore & Handley block, on Twentieth Street. From a small beginning they 
have obtained a large trade. In October, 1886, they moved to more commodious quar- 
ters on Twenty-first Street, near the Jefferson County Savings Bank building. Their 
trade is extending every year, and covers generally the Southern States. They employ 
three traveling salesmen, and handle a line of goods which cannot be surpassed in their 
specialty. 

Mr. Perry is a young man, to whom the future promises much. He ranks as one 
of the most enterprising and progressive in the commercial circles of the Magic City. 



Samuel W. Emmons, itThit 



educated for a business career, has, 



a character worthy of emulation. He is a native of Lancaster Court House, South Caro- 
lina, born in June, 1853, and son of Frank and Mary A. (Orr) Emmons. His father 
was a native of Connecticut, and a farmer of South Carolina. The mother was a native 
of North Carolina. 

Our subject was reared on the home plantation, and educated in the common 
schools. When arriving at maturity he was appointed deputy sheriff of Panola County, 
Mississippi, and filled this arduous and trying office for a term of four years, when he 
tilled the soil of Mississippi until 1883, when he came to Birmingham. His first occu- 
pation was that of a clerk in the wholesale produce house of J. D. Pendleton. A short 
time afterward he purchased a half interest in the business, and subsequently became 
the sole owner. 

Mr. Emmons has confined his attention strictly to the wholesale produce trade, and 
has developed business tendencies of high order. His house is located on Second 
Avenue, between Twenty-first and Twenty-second Streets, where he has commodious 
salesrooms. 



480 Jefferson County. 



Qv 1 was born October 3, 1844, in Sevier County, Tennessee, and is a 



JUllil OlldllClli son of James and Ann (McCauley) Shahan. Our subject was 
reared on his father's farm, and received a good common school education. 

When twenty-one years of age he began business Hfe in Tunnel Hill, Ga., in part- 
nership with J. W. Ownbey, where he was identified from 1865 until 1868. He had 
previously, in 1862, enlisted in Company A, Fourth Georgia Cavalry, and was in service 
until captured by the Federal troops, in August, 1864. He was immediately released, 
however, being in ill-health, and returned to his home. 

From 1868 until 1883 he was engaged in the mercantile trade at Gadsden, and in 
the latter year came to Birmingham, engaging in the retail grocery trade on Second 
Avenue. In July, 1884, he had the misfortune to have his place of business destroyed 
by fire. 

In October, 1885, he embarked in the wholesale produce and grain business, and 
has established a fine trade, which is increasing daily. His place of business is on Mor- 
ris Avenue, where he has extensive warerooms, suitable for his large interests. 

Mr. Shahan was married October 22, 1865, to Miss Susan Morland, of Tennessee, 
who died March 4, 1884. Eight children were born to them — WiUiam L., James M., 
John H., Minnie M., Lonnie E., Ora F., Clyde T., and Susie A. 

Mr. Shahan is a member of the First Baptist Church, and has always taken an 
active part in church work. He has been deacon of his church for eighteen years, and, 
previous to coming to Birmingham, was superintendent of the Sabbath school. 



3/C66re, :Vtoere b; 3(andle3. l^T^^S:^ 

name, situated on the corner of Morris Avenue and Twentieth Street, is located the 
business house of this progressive firm. 

In May, 1881, Mr. B. F. Moore, then traveling as an agent for machinery through- 
out the State of Alabama, came to Birmingham to inspect the city, and to determine the 
advisability of establishing a business house. After a few days passed in earnest and 
careful inquiry he was convinced of the superior advantages of the city, and, upon his 
return to his home at Eoanoke, persuaded his brother, J. D. Moore, and Colonel W. A. 
Handley, who were in business there, to join him in the enterprise, and in February, 
1882, the firm began business on Second Avenue, between Twenty-first and Twenty- 
second Streets, under the firm name of Moore, Moore & Handley. 

The business of the firm prospered from its inception, and in October of the same 
year they were obliged to seek a more favorable locality ,and removed to the Crittenden 
Block, on First Avenue, between Twentieth and Twenty-first Streets. The rapid and 
magic growth of the city, together with the increase of their trade, decided them to 
erect a building extensive enough and especially adapted for their business. This idea 
was practically executed in 1884 by the erection of a splendid structure, now occupied 
by the Metropolitan Hotel. This building was erected at a cost of over $20,000, is 50 by 
100 feet, and is one of the most imposing in Birmingham, consisting of three stories and 
basement. This building was occupied partly by them until 1886, when their continued 



Biographical. 



prosperity demanded still more extensive salesroom, and one entirely devoteil to their 
line of trade, and their present store was finished in the fall of 1886, at a cost of if 15,000. 
The building now occupied by them is 32 by 100 feet, three stories hi^h, with basement, 
and was designed especially for the wholesale and retail hardware and machinery trade. 
Each floor is crowded to its utmost capacity with an extensive stock pertaining to their 
trade, and their sales now amount to over $25,000 per month, and are constantly increas- 
ing. This firm is one of the heaviest operators and owners of real estate in the city, 
and are each severally connected with various other enterprises and investments. 

J. D. MOORE, the senior of the brothers, is a son of James D. and Caroline 
(Martin) Moore. The father, although a native of North Carolina, has been a resident 
of Carroll County, Georgia, for over half a century, and has followed agricultural pur- 
suits. His wife was a widow of William Malone. She was a native of Georgia, and 
has borne him seven children, six of whom are now living. 

James Dolphin Moore was born in Carroll County, Georgia, in 1849, and is a grad- 
uate of Bowdoin College, located in his native county. He subsequently was appointed 
Professor of Mathematics and French, and taught those branches in that institution for 
two years. After one year at Oxford College, where he filled the same chair, he returned 
to Bowdoin College, and resumed the position he had vacated. In 1875 he established 
Koanoke Institute, in Randolph County, Alabama, which he conducted for one year, 
and then abandoned literary pursuits to enter commercial life. He was first associated 
in partnership, in 1876, with Colonel W. A. Handley, at Roanoke, Alabama, under the 
firm name of Moore & Handley, which subsequently became Moore, Mauley & Handley. 

Mr. Moore was soon satisfied that he was well qualified for a larger business field, 
and, in 1882, was induced to come to Birmingham, where he has since resided, and ranks 
as one of its leading business men. He is interested in many of the large corporations and 
enterprises, among which we name the Smithfield and West End Land Companies. He 
is one of the incorporators of a street railroad, and also of the GriSin, LaGrange & West- 
ern Railroad ; is one of the organizers of the Birmingham Bridge and Forge Company, 
and is president of the Birmingham Axe and Tool Company, a full sketch of which appears 
in the manufacturing industries. He is deeply interested in all matters pertaining to 
the progress of Alabama, and is ever ready to assist and promote a healthy growth to 
substantial industries. With a superior literary taste and cultivation he is a friend to 
advanced education, and, with his wife, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. 

Mr. Moore was united in marriage July 7, 1885, with Miss Annie Provost, of Mobile. 
One child graces this union, Edna J. 

B. F. MOORE is justly recognized as one of the most progressive among the 
many meritorious young business men of Alabama. He is a native of Georgia, and was 
born in June, 1854. Like his brother, he was educated in the public schools of Carroll 
County, and also attended Bowdoin College, which was supplemented by two years of 
study in the academical department of the University of Virginia. 

He was for one year a teacher in his native county, and in 1876, upon resignation 
of his brother from Roanoke Institute, Alabama, was placed in charge of that institu- 
tion, which he ably conducted for a period of four years. For a short time thereafter 
he engaged in traveling throughout the State, selling machinery, during which he 
became convinced that Birmingham was the best business location and distributing 
point in the State, and in May, 1881, decided to locate there. 



\ 



482 Jefferso7i Comity. 



The result we have noted above, and to our subject is due the credit of starting one 
of the many strong business houses of Birmingham. He has devoted his attention 
assiduously to business, but has found leisure to invest in and originate many other 
business enterprises. His name is identified with the Village Creek Land Company, 
of which he owns one-third of its stock, and is the secretary and trea.surer ; is secretary 
and treasurer of the Birmingham Axe and Tool Company ; is one of the incorporators of 
the Smithfleld Land Company ; is a stockholder in the Birmingham & Jones Valley 
Street Railroad, and interested in many other corporations. He is also personally inter- 
ested in considerable real estate, in which he has great faith. 

Mr. Moore is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and liberal and 
charitable to all worthy projects. 

"1 A _.^fi O C7>/-| ^Prt ^ well-known business man of Birmingham, was torn 
^Oaepip X(D. Ciuriej .^^ Eiyton ;„ October, 18.3.3, and is a son of Dr. Samuel 
S. and Harriet (Wright) Earle. The following is from Brewer's History of Alabama: 

" The late Samuel S. Earle was one of the best and most prominent citizens of Jef- 
ferson County for fifty years. He was a native of South Carolina, where he was bom 
in 1799, and came to Alabama in 1820, locating in Jefferson. His skill as a physician, 
his many excellencies of character, his literary culture and practical sense, soon gave 
him prominence. He represented the county in the legislature in 1832, and three or 
four times subsequently ; the last time in 1842, when his party was in a hopeless 
minority in Jefferson, but he preferred the peace of domestic life. 

' And to add greater honors to his age 
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.' 

This event occurred December 20, 1870. His numerous descendants are in Jefferson, 
and are among the most respected citizens." 

Four children, of a family of ten, survive him — our subject ; Sarah, wife of Robert 
M. Greene, of Elyton; Harriet, wife of Hon. G. W. Hewitt; and Paul H,, whose sketch 
appears below. 

Joseph B. was educated in the private schools of Elyton, and at the age of eighteen 
began his business career as a clerk in the general merchandise store of Wright & 
Earle, and in 1854 he became a partner, the firm being styled Wright & Earle. They 
continued doing a prosperous business until 1860, when Mr. Earle purchased his part- 
ner's interest, and formed a copartnership with the late AVilliam S. Mudd, and the asso- 
ciation continued until 1880, when the partnership was dissolved, and our subject 
removed his business to Birmingham, where he has been conducting a prosperous busi- 
ness since. 

Mr. Earle is known as a sound and conservative business man, and a liberal and 
charitable citizen, and without damning with faint praise on the one hand, or eulogizing 
on the other, all who know him, says a friend, will cheerfully sa}', that there are few 
men who, while such strong factors in busy and society life as he has been since the 
close of the war, have still "kept the even tenor of their way, along the cool seques- 
tered path of life," with more modest dignity and more unsoiled escutcheon than he has. 
Shy and reticent among strangers, he is full of genial humor and jocularity among his 
friends. He neither flatters others nor courts flattery of them. He has never been 
spoiled by prosperity, nor broken by adversity, and he has had a full measure of both. 
Of simple tastes and pretensions, of pure heart and well-poised head, he has managed 
to mingle with the world, to take his full share of its burdens and battles, and yet come 
forth without smut or reproach. Though he does not lavish his affections on many, yet 



Biographical. 483 



those who come near enough to his inner self to enjoy his friendship feel satisfied that 
his sentiments are genuine and to be relied upon, and that it is somewhat of an honor 
to claim such warm consideration at the hands of such a plain, honest, refined, and cul- 
tured gentleman. 



Pauf 



TJ' C7>^ ^Po one of the oldest merchants now doing business in Bir- 
5 mingham, is a native of Elyton, where he first saw the 
light in 1839, bis ancestors being among the earliest settlers of the county. A sketch 
of his parents, Dr. Samuel S. and Harriet (Wright) Earle, appears in the sketch pre- 
ceding. 

Our subject passed his boyhood days in Elyton, where he attended the schools of 
that primitive town. Early in life he began his business training by becoming a clerk 
in a general store in his native village, and in 1870 embarked in trade there on his own 
account. 

In 1877, with an eye quick to recognize the advantage of locating in the new 
town, then just reviving from disaster, he removed his goods to Birmingham, and 
established his business on Twenty-first Street, where he remained until the completion 
of his present two-story brick building, No. 1918 Finst Avenue, where he has been in 
successful trade since 1880. Mr. Earle carries a large stock of goods, and has estab- 
lished one of the most substantial trades in the city. Although devoting his attention 
etrictly to his business affairs, he has been called upon to till public positions, and has 
served upon the board of the city council. He is a member of the board of county 
commissioners, and since the organization of the First National Bank has been a direc- 
tor in that institution. He is also a director and vice-president of the Birmingham 
Building and Loan Association. Among the citizens of the county who have resided 
here all their lives, there is none more widely and favorably known. 

Mr. Earle married, in 1869, Miss Mary G. Greene, also a native of the county, and 
■of an old and honored family. They have a family of five children — Samuel L., Katie, 
Mary, Paul H., Jr., and Annie. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church,_South. 

JlrMJTvT M ^(^'^TTM one of the leading booksellers and stationers of Alabama, 
QJUri.JH m. B\UUllxJ\, is a native of the State, born July 28, 1848, in DeKalb 
County, and son of William and Viola (Harrison) Roden, who were descendants of old 
Southern stock (a short sketch of whom appears in the biography of B. F. Roden). 

Mr. Roden has been in active business life since his boyhood. His early 
education was confined to the public schools of DeKalb and Blount Counties, and 
his business career, commencing as a clerk in a grocery store in Gadsden, in 1868, and 
■continued in Atlanta. He subsequently emigrated to Texas, where he remained about 
three years, engaged in farming and merchandising. His next venture was in Hot 
•Springs County, Arkansas, where for over one year he was merchandising and trading 
in stock and grain. In February, 1873, he came to Birmingham, then only a city of 
four thousand inhabitants, and for two years was engaged by his brother, B. F. Roden, 
during which period he passed through the cholera scourge of that year. He estab- 
lished his present busine.ss in September, 1875, with a capital stock of $450 in a store on 
Twentieth Street, subsequently he removed to First Avenue, and finally to his present 
■commodious quarters on Second Avenue. Mr. Roden's business has been steadily 
increasing, and has developed to such proportions that each year finds it necessary to 
increase his salesroom. He carries as fine and complete a line as can be found in any 
-city South of the Ohio River, and is not confined to Birmingham alone, as his wholesale 



484 Jefferson County. 



trade is becoming an important feature of his business, having traveling salesmen who 
reach all points in the State. Mr. Roden has a music store and branch book house in 
Birmingham, and also a store at Gadsden, Alabama. 

Mr. Roden's success in business is merited, and as a citizen he ranks as one of its 
most popular and deserving. He has other interests which are rapidly developing, 
among them the Avondale Land Company, and the Birmingham Gas and Illuminating 
Company. He is one of the oldest members of the Birmingham Lodge of Knights of 
Pythias. Mr. Roden was married April 13, 1879, to Miss Cora J. Gillian, of Perry 
County, Alabama. He and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he 
is a deacon. 

fPl\A/ A T?!^ ^I?Q^A7^'T T was born on the Atlantic Ocean July 5, 1846. As 
U W A1\U ^1\0 W til^L, tjjg ^ggggi ^yjjg sailing in British waters at the time 
this makes him an Englishman. 

His father, Charles Erswell, was a native of London, and his mother a native of 
Edinburgh, Scotland, but of English parentage. He had four brothers and five sisters, 
and all are now living in this country except one brother. 

His father was in the employ of the United States Government for many years as a 
supervising architect, and superintended some very important works in Washington 
City and other parts of the country. 

Edward received his first school training at Cleveland, Ohio, when he was only 
eight years old, and then went to Baldwin University, at Berea. He continued to go to 
school for about sis months after this and then went West and joined a wagon train 
organized at Nebraska City, for the purpose of crossing the plains. He traveled with 
them three months, going as far as Fort Kearney, and on account of sickness was com- 
pelled to return home. We next find him engaged in the stock business throughout 
the West for nearly two years, in which he was very successful. He then entered Cornell 
University in Ithaca, New York, but soon after he engaged himself to a firm for the 
purpose of selling books, in which he was successful, and next became interested in a 
patent medicine. 

For several years subsequently he was engaged in his trade as cabinet maker, and 
then went to Winchester, Virginia, and engaged in the furniture business for two years, 
but his business, through the duplicity of his partner, was ruined. 

He then became associated with Professor Collins, of Baltimore, a noted magician, 
and with him gave entertainments in several different States, and having accumulated 
a considerable sum of money, went to the Indian Territory and secured a party of 
Indians, by permission of the Government, and took them to various State fairs through- 
out the South. 

Up to the fall of 1871 he was engaged in various enterprises in the West and South. 
He came to Birmingham in the spring of 1872 to locate, and opened a shop as a cabinet 
maker. The first work he did was to make the stage for Mr. O'Brien for Sublett Hall, 
which was the first theatrical stage made in Birmingham. He passed through the 
Bmall-pox and cholera scourges, and during the prevalence of the latter frequently 
worked all night making coffins for the dead. 

Mr. Erswell has dealt very successfully in real estate transactions. His furniture 
business has also grown with the growth of the town. 

He was married some years since in Chetopa, Kansas, to Miss Katie Smith. He is 
the father of four children, all of whom, save one, are living. Mr. Erswell is an Odd 
Fellow of the highest standing. Mr. and Mrs. Erswell belong to the Episcopal Church. 



Biographical. 485 



fZharloC H F^r^nric '"■'''« born in the month of October, ISuS, and is a son 
Ur[al lLi> n. r iar|LlO ^f Dr. J. C. and Amy Ingram Francis, the former a 
native of Tennessee, and the latter of Georgia. They emigrated to Alabama some years 
after their marriage, where Dr. Francis practiced his profession for more than forty 
years. 

The subject of this sketch attended school near his homo until he attained his sev- 
enteenth year, and then went to Selma, and clerked in a drug store for one year. He 
then went to New York, where he completed his studies in pharmacy. Returning to the 
South he located at Montgomery and engaged as a clerk in the general dry goods house 
of T. W. Francis & Co., and at the expiration of three and one half years he became a 
member of the firm of Francis, Cobbs & Co. After remaining a member of this firm 
three and one half years, he sold out his interests and came to Birmingham in April, 
1884, and established a shoe store. His business, from the beginning, was good, and it 
grew very rapidly, and assumed proportions beyond his most sanguine hopes. He then 
bought a lot in the most frequented part of the city, and erected on it one of the hand- 
somest business buildings, but continued in the shoe business, enlarging it by adding a 
finding department and the manufacture of shoes and shoe uppers. Enough has been 
said to convince anyone that success has continued to crown his efforts with more than 
the usual share of liberality. 

Mr. Francis very justly deserves to be ranked among the staunchest young business 
men of Birmingham, and that he has grown and prospered with the city's growth and 
prosperity is but a natural tribute to his ever-active energy. He is a citizen in the 
best sense of the term, and is always ready to aid in fostering the general good, and is 
a member of several corporations, looking to the attainment of this end. He is secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Birmingham Soap AVorks, now being erected, with a capital 
stock of $.50,000, and also of the Highland Lake Land Company. 

He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

'\ArilliQ'm "R P^r^Tio! CI n rl °^ the firm of Copeland & Stone, booksellers, 
VVIiiidiii JJ. UUpUidiiU., ^as born in May, 1856, in Morgan County, 
Alabama. His father. Rev. A. G. Copeland, was a native of Tennessee, and for many 
years a minister of the North Alabama JI. E. Conference. 

Our subject was given good educational advantages, attending the Vanderbilt Uni- 
versity, of Nashville, Tenn, one term. After the completion of his studies he entered 
the book store of J. B. Roden, of Birmingham, where he was engaged six years, and 
became master of every detail of that business. 

In 1886 he formed an association with R. I. Stone, under the firm name of Cope- 
land & Stone, and embarked in the wholesale and retail book and stationery business, 
and are rapidly establishing a reputation, which is extending througliout the State. 
They make a specialty of commercial stationery and office supplies. Mr. Copeland is 
one of the wide-awake, energetic young business men who are making the city of Bir- 
mingham known throughout the world. 

He was married in January, 1877, to Miss May O. Henry, a native of Alabama. 
They have three children — Edward R., Annie P., and Manoah A. 

Mr. and Mrs. Copeland are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
in which Mr. Copeland has officiated as superintendent of the Sunday school. 



Jeffej'son County. 

\fj 1 1 1 1 3 TD T-I nnri ^^^° ^^^ ^^^ over ten years been prominent in the business 
11 XiXlCXlli. 1J.UUU., circles of Birmingham, was born in December, 1847, in 
Choctaw County, Mississippi, and is a son of Alexander and Catherine Smith Hood — 
the former a native of Ireland, and the mother of South Carolina. 

The father of our subject died when he was young, and he was called upon to labor 
on the home farm to assist in the support of his mother and the family. His studies 
were prosecuted at such times as he could spare from the active duties of the farm. 

In 1868 he began his business life, entering the store of May & Martin, of Elyton, as 
clerk, and continued, subsequently, upon the change of firm, with May & Earle. In 
1870 he engaged with the well-known firm of J. B. Earle & Co., of Elyton, and remained 
in their employ until 1873, when he went to JrSacIelphia, Alaljama, and formed a partr 
nership with W. S. Brown, embarking in the retail dry goods and grocery trade, where 
they prospered until March, 1876, when they removed their interests to Birmingham. 
They opened up their house on Twentieth Street, between First and Second Avenues, 
and continued in association until September, 1882, when, by mutual consent, the part- 
nership was dissolved. 

Mr. Hood has continued in trade alone since, and has established one of the most 
lucrative trades in the cit)'. His business house, on Second Avenue, is owned by him, 
is 25 by 140 feet, two stories in height, and is one of the most commodious and attractive 
on that thoroughfare. He has a large trade, and carries a complete line of staple and 
fancy dry goods, notions, caps, hats, shoes, queensware, hardware, and groceries. 

Mr. Wood served as postmaster at Elyton, and is a Mason. 

He was married to Miss Vilanta Yielding January 12, 187.5. Six children bless 
this union — William A., Ira L., Robert H., Nina D., Jennie C, and Walter M. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hood are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

and is a son of Hiram M. and Mary A. (Flint) Lindsay, also natives of Georgia. Our 
subject, after attending private schools until thirteen years of age, became a clerk for an 
attorney of Macon, with whom he remained for two years, and for some months sub- 
sequently was engaged as clerk in the mercantile business. He next ventured in busi- 
ness for himself, contracting for the news agencies of several railroads, which he leased 
to other parties, making a handsome profit. He remained in the business for three 
years, having charge of the agencies of all the railroads in Georgia, and a number of 
the most important in Alabama. After two years passed in farming near Macon he was 
appointed assistant to the city clerk of Macon by the mayor, and was subsequently in 
various other clerical positions in JIacon, during which time he learned stenography, in 
which branch he became an expert, and was thus enabled to secure the position of pri- 
vate secretary to the secretary of the Mobile Life Insurance Company, in whose service 
he remained three years. While thus employed he was instrumental in securing the 
passage of a bill in the State Legislature, appointing an official stenographer to the 
courts in Mobile, which position he secured and filled for three years. His next expe- 
rience was to engage in the furniture business in Anniston, Alabama, in which for 
three years he was successful. In November, 1885, he removed his stock to Birming- 
ham, to enlarge his field of business, and here he has established a business, which, in 
his line, cannot be surpassed in the State. Mr. Lindsay is the architect of his own for- 
tune, and has attained his present high standing in the business world through the 
attributes which he possesses of sound judgment, and an enterprise which is commend- 
able. 



Biographical. 487 



He was married in October, 1876, to Miss Henrietta A. Phillips, of Tennessee^ 
Five children bless their union — Mabel, Maud, Clarence, Paul, and Aline. 

T-Trti't^ii MoK>/->DK» °"® "^ ^^ leading merchants of Birmingham, was born in 
onarrLj l lercer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September, 1841. His parents, 
Henry and Elizabeth M. (Fraley) Mercer, were natives, the father of England and the 
mother of Pennsylvania. His father is a ship builder, and has been connected with the 
celebrated builders, Wm. Crump & Sons, of Philadelphia, since 1860. Our subject 
received advantages of the public schools of his native city, and was for a time in the 
mechanical college, which he entered to learn the rudiments of steam engineering. 

When seventeen years of age he began to learn the trade of a watchmaker and 
jeweler, which he worked at diligently for five years, becoming thoroughly familiar 
■with the business in all of its numerous branches. In 1865 he served for a short 
period in the militia of the State. Subsequent to the close of the war he was engaged 
in his trade in Pennsylvania, also serving one year in the city surveyor's office. In 1868 
ho came to Alabama, and worked at his trade for two years in Montgomery with Mr.. 
Otto Stoelker, and from thence to Opelika, Alabama, where he engaged in the watch 
and jewelry business, and conducted it successfully for nearly ten years. Mr. Mercer 
became a citizen and business man of Birmingham in 1880, where, by a thorough 
knowledge of his trade and progressive business tendencies, he has established a splen- 
did record, both as a business man and as a public-spirited citizen. His business house,, 
on Twentieth Street, in the First National Bank building, is filled to overflowing with 
the wares pertaining to his line. Being himself a practical workman, and the superin- 
tendent of his business in person, his success is thus attributed. 

Mr. Mercer is an ex. officio grand officer and a member of the Knights of Pythias ;, 
also a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was married in February, 1884, to Miss 
Ellen S., daughter of Thomas U. Green, of Birmingham. 



FdU/in D. OlmStead, t^e leading merchant tailor of Birmingham 
\_ f , ^ , ^^ ^ , January 16, 185o, m New York City, and is 



was born 
is a son of 

L. J. and Mary W. Olmstead, nee Campbell. The father was an architect and builder, 
following his vocation in New York. 

Edwin D. went to school some seven years in New York, and was employed then 
in New Orleans as clerk, in the latter place ten years with the same grocery house,. 
Lewis & Co. From Talladega, Alabama, he came to Birmingham, December, 1883. He 
is now in the tailoring and gents' furnishing goods business, in which he has the lead- 
ing trade. 

December, 1884, Mr. Olmstead married Miss Annie P., daughter of William T. 
Read, and they have one child. Mr. and Mrs. Olmstead are members of the Presby- 
terian Church. 

Rp^nrPrrSITrl V\ AA/Vlilrlpn *® "'^s of the successful and promising of the 
UCdUiCgdlU U. VVllllUCU youngbusinessmen of Alabama. Hewasborn 
in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, and is a son of Elias and Elizabeth (Miller) Whil- 
den, of South Carolina ancestry. His father is a native of Charleston, and a master 
mechanic. 

Our subject attended private school until thirteen years of age, and then began life 
for himself, engaging as a clerk in the commission house of Beck & Holland, in Bruns- 
wick, Georgia, continuing in their employ until eighteen years of age. He then deter- 
mined to secure a better business education, and for that purpose entered the college o£ 



488 Jeffej'son County. 



Atlanta, Georgia, and was graduated therefrom in ISSl. For two years following he 
was employed as a clerk in the hardware business, and also in a grocery store in Bruns- 
wick. In October, 1883, he established himself in Birmingham in a small way, opening 
Tip a grocery store on South Twentieth Street, and from this small beginning established 
a magnificent business. In 1884 he admitted as a partner George W. Campbell, thus 
forming the firm of Whilden & Campbell, which was known throughout Alabama. 
Messrs. Whilden & Campbell erected their handsome business house in 1886. It is an 
ornament to the city, and is filled with goods pertaining to the wholesale and retail 
grocery trade. They employed two traveling salesmen, and their sales amounted to 
over one hundred thousand dollars annually. Their building is on the corner of 
Twentieth Street and Avenue D, is three stories high, and 45 x 100 feet. It is divided 
into two storerooms, and the upper portion rented as a hotel. The market price of 
this property is now forty thousand dollars. 

Mr. Whilden is a young man of fine address and good moral character, and is a 
thorough business man, and a member of the Episcopal Church. He was elected a 
member of the board of aldermen in 1886, but was forced to resign, as his large busi- 
ness interests occupied his entire attention. He is worthy of the esteem in which he 
is held by his friends and patrons. 

In the spring of 1887 Messrs. Whilden & Campbell disposed of their grocery busi- 
ness, and will embark in the coffee and spice trade. They will locate their buildings 
on the railroad, near the Alice Furnace, and will have especial machinery made for 
them in Europe. 

C^ r\r^v^i-n-\ TV? Cf '-\r>r\r-\V\r\\\ was born in Huntsville, Alabama, October, 
be©Pie ^. liamplDeil isea, and Isason of Slmuel H. and Cor- 
nelia (Nowlin) Campbell, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Alabama. 

Mr. Campbell was educated in private schools, supplemented by a course of study 
at the University of Lexington, Kentucky. 

His business life was commenced in Birmingham as bookeeperfor F. 0. Sherrod, a 
wholesale grocer, and subsequently he was employed by a dry goods firm at Chatta- 
nooga, Tennessee, in the same capacity. In 1883 Mr. Campbell returned to Birming- 
ham and started a small grocery store, with very limited capital, but he prosecuted his 
business vigorously, until February, 1884, when he formed an association with Mr. B. 
D. Whilden. Mr. Campbell was an important factor in the successful management of 
their business, and to him may be credited, in a measure, the success which they 
achieved. 

He is a young man with intelligent ideas, and possesses a thorough knowledge of 
the practical duties pertaining to the management of large interests, and is one of the 
rising young men of Birmingham. 

C 1-1-1 11 qI T'nvvi:iTT ^'^^ born in Montreal, Canada, April 21, 1824. His father, 
OcilllLlCl iUiiCj David S. Torrey, was a native of Vermont, but emigrated to 
Canada in 1820. His grandfather was an American soldier in the Revolutionary war, 
and served under the brave Ethan Allen. As a singular coincidence it may be stated 
that the grandfather was put up to be shot by the British soldiers on the spot w here 
the grandson was born. Some unexpected circumstance prevented the carrying out of 
the execution. 

His father fought under the American flag in the war of 1812, having returned to 
his native country some time in 1837. The subject's mother was Miss Nanny Dudy, a 
native of Vermont. 



Biographical. 489 



He first went to the French College, in Montreal, but after the return of his father 
to Vermont, he continued his education until eighteen near his home. He was in 
Montpelier up to 1847, when he came to Montgomery, Alabama, and was in the cloth- 
ing business until the fall of 1865. He was in the war of 1861-65 at different intervals 
throughout its continuance. 

He went to Kowaliga, Alabama, in the fall of 1865, and merchandised and farmed 
there until August, 1871, when he came to Birmingham. On his arrival he bought a 
lot and let the contract to have a store put up, and returned in ten days with a wagon 
load of goods hauled all the way from Montgomery, This incident marks an interest- 
ing episode in Birmingham's history. This wagonload was the first merchandise ever 
brought to the city. Mr. Torrey was among the faithful few who remained in Birming- 
ham throughout the cholera scourge, and from his store many things were supplied to 
the suffering. Drugs, as well as other articles, were kept in stock. Mr. Torrey con- 
tinued to merchandise up to July, 1886, and since has been one of the most successful 
dealers in real estate. l\Ir. Torrey was married the second time to Jane E., daughter 
of Mr. J. C. Westbrook, of Birmingham, December 31, 1862. He is the father of one 
child, John Westbrook. He is an Odd Fellow, having been a member since 1845. 

All the members of his family are Methodists. 

oT^ A ^ ^r-TN*'!^ wholesale and retail merchant, is a native of Jeffer- 

CSy nomCLe) ^. ^mn rij ^^^ county, and a descendant of one of the earliest 
settlers. He was born September 12, 1851, and is a son of John B. Smith, also a native 
of the County of Jefferson, and one who gave up his life for the Southern cause. He 
was wounded at Vicksburg, May 22, 1863, and died July 14, 1863, from the effects of the 
wound. The mother of our subject was born in the county. Her maiden name was 
Sarah Nabers. 

Mr. Smith entered the Poughkeepsie Commercial College, New York, at the age of 
nineteen, having previously attended private schools, and is a graduate of that institu- 
tion. Returning to his home in Elyton he engaged as salesman and bookkeeper for Dr. 
J. K. Smith, in whose service he passed nine years. He embarked in business for him- 
self in Birmingham in 1880, and has prospered greatly. His location is on Twentieth 
Street, between First and Second Avenues, where he conducts a wholesale and retail 
business. Mr. Smith has also been fortunate in real estate transactions, and is a consid- 
erable owner of property in the county. He is married to Lucy E., daughter of Wil- 
liam A. and C. M. (Porter) Walker, of Elyton. Three children have been born to them 
— Frank W., Grace P., and Samuel Lawrence. 

Mrs. Smith is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

~\ „ A Q. ■UP,.»^A,!^A is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, born in May, 

^ame,^ >^. eM Opt^iriX^ ^^^^^ ^^^ .^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^I ^„^ Ellza Pamella 

Hopkins. His father was a prominent business man prior to the war, having business 
houses in Memphis and New Orleans. 

The early school days of our subject were passed in Huntsville, Alabama, and Look- 
out Mountain, Tennessee. He subsequently graduated from the Commercial College 
of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1874. His business life commenced in Madison, Alabama, 
where for five years he was the bookkeeper for J. W. Hopkins & Bro., and in which 
firm, through sterling merit, he was admitted as a partner, and continued in business 
there until 1885. 

The thriving city of Birmingham attracted his attention as a desirable location for 
business, and in June, 1886, he became a resident, and established the firm of J. B. 



490 Jefierson Couniy. 



Hopkins & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in stoves, tinware, and house-furnishing 
goods, and in this line of trade they have been eminently successful. Their business 
house on Twenty-first Street, between First and Second Avenues, is one of the most 
imposing on that thoroughfare. Their line of goods takes a wide range, and embraces 
stoves, ranges, mantels, grates, tinware, roofing, galvanized-iron cornice work, etc., and 
their trade extends over a wide territory. 

Mr. Hopkins is one of the Magic City's most prosperous citizens, and a reliable 
business man. He was united in marriage in June, 1879, to Miss Madeline, daughter 
of Dr. Tell Saunders, of Madison County, Alabama. They have three children — Ann 
Eliza, Bessie, and Gertrude. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins are prominent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. Jlr. Hopkins has been steward for the past three years, and an active worker 
in the Sunday school. 



Uftomod) (3. ©Jftompx^oQ 



is an extraordinary man. He has made his 
way to influence and fortune by an unob- 
trusive, courageous and consistent adherence to the simple rules of diligence in busi- 
ness, and an honorable ambition. The support he has commanded from the public in 
his labors, and the confidence which all classes repose in his judgment and his motives, 
are founded upon the equipoise of character and catholicity of sympathies which make 
the true man and valuable citizen. 

He was born in Chambers County, Alabama, June 22, 1850, the son of Jesse S. and 
Henrietta E. (Collins) Thompson. Jesse S. Thompson was a contractor and builder. 
The son attended private school until the age of thirteen years, when he became an 
apprentice to his father to learn the building trade. His progressive career then began, 
for, at the age of eighteen, we find him foreman of his father's considerable business. 
At his father's death four years later, which occurred in Birmingham, he moved to Bir- 
mingham, in 1871, with his father's family, and after his death in July, 1872, he was 
employed by other contractors and builders in the same capacity. 

In 1873 he formed a copartnership with his brother, B. A. Thompson, in the build- 
ing business. After eighteen months this firm dissolved, and Thomas C. Thompson 
continued in the same line on his own account. In 1879 he took into partnership, to enter 
the hardware business, and building and contracting, Mr. J. B. Francis, the firm being 
styled T. C. Thompson & Co. Mr. Thompson gave his personal attention to the busi- 
ness, and has put up some of the handsomest buildings in the city, all of which have 
given the best of satisfaction. In March, 1886, W. A. Chenoweth was admitted to the 
copartnership, and the firm name now is Thompson, Francis & Chenoweth. 

He is now president of the Thompson Brick Company, the largest company of the 
kind in the city ; also, a stockholder and director in the Enterprise Manufacturing Com- 
pany, the largest wood-working company in Alabama; stockholder and director in the 
Consolidated Street Railroad Company, of Birmingham, and superintendent and general 
manager of the Jeflferson Building and Improvement Company, of Birmingham. 

October 11, 1883, Mr. Thompson married Miss Julia, daughter of George Seaman. 
His beautiful city residence, on the cottage style, is noted as the abode of a delightful 
hospitality. In every good work Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are among the most liberal con- 
tributors, and no personal influence in Birmingham society is more healthful than theirs. . 

Mr. Thompson is an active vestryman of the Episcopal Church ; is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Knights of Pythias. He has been 
Worthy Chief of the Lodge of Grand Templars, and also its State Deputy. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson lost their only child. 



Biographical. 491 

jfl_yY.-(-. "1^ 'tT'y, ^ y. /, i Q was born in Richmond, Kentucky, August 19, 
Q<X\\\.'C)^ JL). X t ClllLI^ 1843, and is a son of Thomas J. and Elizabeth 
(Gibbs) Francis, natives of Kentucky. Mr. James B. Francis received a good common 
school education. In 18(30 he enlisted as private in Company H, of the Seventh Mis- 
souri Infantry. He served throughout the war in different departments. He was 
promoted to first lieutenant for gallantry, and he has yet the scar of a wound which 
confined him to the Vicksburg hospital for four months. After the surrender he went 
to York Station, Alabama, and engaged in the grocery business. In 1871 he located in 
Birmingham, and engaged in general merchandise. He and Mr. T. C. Thompson, in 
1878, formed a partnership, for the purpose of conducting a wholesale and retail hard- 
ware business. In 1872 Mr. Francis was elected to the office of city treasurer, and re- 
elected the succeeding year. He was married September 14, 1872, to Miss Dora, daugh- 
ter of John McCree, of South Carolina, and their union has been blessed with three 
children — Hines S., James B., and John S. Francis. Mr. Francis is a member of the 
Free and Accepted Masons ; is a charter member of Fraternal Lodge, No. 384, and has 
served it as senior warden. He and his wife are members of the M. E. Church, South, 
and he has always taken an active part in church and Sunday school work. For several 
years he has discharged the duties of steward and secretary of the Sunday school. 

^JTilliam J{. (DnznOwzih S.rS;lb:;ltry\!'SS 

is a son of Captain James M. and Harriet (Arthur) Chenoweth, also natives of Ken- 
tucky. William A. was educated in the high schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, and when 
seventeen years of age began his business career as a clerk in the wholesale hardware 
house of R. W. Booth & Co., of Cincinnati, remaining with this firm nine years, when 
the firm dissolved, and he became the traveling representative of the wholesale hard- 
ware firm of Lloyd, Supplee & Co., of Philadelphia, continuing with this house until he 
came to Birmingham, in 1886. 

Mr. Chenoweth is now a member of the hardware firm of Thompson, Francis & Chen- 
oweth, and augments this well-known firm with an experience of sixteen years in that 
branch of business — added to that an extensive acquaintance, acquired by his travels in 
in the hardware line. He is now thoroughly established as a business man in Birming- 
ham, and is a director in the Thompson Brick Company, and also the Birmingham 
Transfer Company. Mr. Chenoweth was married in September, 1880, to Miss Viola 
Beach, of Columbus, Ga. They have one child, Wm. A., Jr. 

Mr. and Mrs. Chenoweth are members of the Presbyterian Church. 

■g)_,_p„ '^ ^IIATT^IJ ^^^ subject of this sketch, who is now one of Birming- 
]^ S-iL\\^ I J®\. kifi III i\, ijam's most successful young business men, was born in 
Panola County, Mississippi, in September, 1862, and is a son of Stephen H. and Vic- 
toria Reynolds Smith, natives of Tennessee. Percy R. Smith was reared on a Missis^ 
sippi farm, and attended a private school until he was thirteen years of age, when he 
entered Webb Brothers' High School and completed a collegiate course of studies, and 
in the spring of 1881 he entered the Commercial College at Nashville, Tennessee, from 
which he graduated. In 1883 he went to Louisville, Kentucky, to accept a position as 
bookkeeper for Bayless Brothers & Company, dealers in queensware. With this firm he 
remained one year, and then removed to Birmingham. He bought out J. P. Mudd, and 
engaged in the queensware business on a wholesale scale. He is an active, shrewd 
business man, full of energy, and is quoted in commercial circles as "gilt edge." He 
has, through his fine business capacity and indomitable will, succeeded in establishing 
27 



492 Jefferson County. 



a large trade, which is growing daily. Mr. Smith is a member of the Presbyterian 
Church. His place of business is on Second Avenue, between Nineteenth and Twen- 
tieth Streets. 

f®»0P\T5^0 TY? RniBlC^ ^^'^ ^^ born in Choctaw County, Mississippi, 
Uctyrgt; W. IDellrlO, August 20, I8.55, is a son of Samuel C, a native 
of Mississippi, and Henrietta Sample Bains, a native of North Carolina. His father 
merchandised in the State of Mississippi for fifty years, and is one of the oldest mer- 
chants in the State. After securing the benefits of a high-school education, George W. 
entered the College of Pharmacy, Louisville, Ky., at the age of fourteen. After a four- 
years' course he graduated in 1878, and engaged in the drug business with his father at 
Vaiden, Mississippi, and for eight years continued in business with his father under the 
firm name of Bains & Son. He took a trip through the South, looking for a location, 
and finally located in Birmingham in 1883. Here he, with his old friend and school- 
mate, Louis W. Herring, entered into the wholesale and retail drug business under the 
firm name of Bains & Herring, which was changed to Bains & Peeples, January 1, 1887. 
The house is well established, and in a flourishing condition. Mr. Bains is an enter- 
prising young business man, who understands his business thoroughly. His strict 
integrity and attractive social qualities have made for him hosts of steadfast friends in 
Birmingham. While residing in Yaiden, Mississippi, his native home, he was twice 
elected a member of the city council, and ser\-ed as mayor pro tern, two years. He is 
now a prominent member of the Jefierson County Democratic Club, and was a delegate 
to the last Democratic County Convention. November 12, 1884, he was married to Miss 
May Armistead, whose parents. Dr. William H. and Mary Wilson Armistead, were 
residents of Vaiden, but natives of North Carolina and ^Mississippi respective]}-. 

Mr. Bains and his wife are members of the Presljyterian Church. They have one 
child — Rosa W. Bains. 



J 



nEElDC^ W) Wc^C^h\]o^ ^^ a native of Mississippi, and is a son of Dr. 



James H. and Florence E. McLean Peebles, na- 
tives of the same State. The subject of this sketch was born at Greenwood, Mississippi, 
in April, 1861, and enjoyed splendid educational advantages. When eighteen years of 
age he engaged in the drug business as clerk for Bains & Son, at Vaiden, Mississippi. 
In 1884 he removed to Birmingham, and accepted a clerkship in the wholesale and retail 
drug store of Bains & Herring, in which capacity he served the house until January, 
1887, when he bought out Mr. L. W. Herring's interest, and became a partner with Mr. 
Bains, changing the stj'le of the firm to Bains & Peebles. Mr. Peebles is a young busi- 
ness man of pluck and capacity, and his house is in a prosperous condition. 

m^mm E. WilihiFiife©Fi ^^iSTu^^S^^Tt^^i 

T. Withington, were also natives of that State, his father being a prominent mechanic 
of Charleston. 

Our subject was prepared for college in private schools ; entered the Medical College 
of South Carolina, located at Charleston, and was graduated therefrom in March, 1879. 
He was engaged in the drug trade in Charleston, continuing there five years. In May, 
1884, the bright future of Birmingham attracted him hither, and soon after the firm of 
Withington & Lynch was formed ; Mr. Lynch being an old friend and schoolmate. Their 
success was immediate, and is prospering and extending daily. They are both j'oung 
men of exemplary habits and with prospects for a brilliant future. 



Biographical. 493 

iTAAyrirC © F'VMr^U ^'*^ hoxn at Walterboro, Colleton County, South. 
OiAMtiO W. MlJMbrl Carolina, November 19, I860. His parents were also 
natives of that State ; bis father, James T. Lynch, was for a long time an extensive cot- 
ton merchant ; his mother's maiden name was Mary Augusta Pinckney, a name well 
known throughout the United States. 

James P. was educated in the high schools of Charleston, graduating in 1876. He 
than began the study of civil engineering, having for his tutor the city engineer of 
Charleston, and Bishop P. N. Lynch, of South Carolina. After gaining proficiency be 
was engaged in the Government service. He has traveled extensively over the West 
and Mexico in the capacity of engineer, during which time he was promoted and 
assigned to various positions of responsibility. He determined in May, 1884, to enter 
commercial life in Birmingham, in association with Mr. M. E. Withington, thus adding 
to the Magic City a young man of high talents and moral worth. 

'^(-I'Rn ©\/\/ ®\A/lPAnri merchant, is a son of Rev. Wm. L. Wilson, whose 
^On.a'^Y''^Y' sketch appears in another portion of this work. 
John W. was born November 19, 1849, in Blount County, Alabama, and received a 
good education. He commenced a business career when a j'outh, as a clerk in the mer- 
cantile house of Wilson & Martin, of Elyton, with whom he was connected for three 
years. Birmingham at this period presented an inviting field for enterprise and 
pluck, and he therefore embarked in the general merchandising business together 
with his brother, James E. Wilson, and by strict application, liberal methods, and 
enterprise of a judicious character, they have become a leading factor among the 
varied business interests of JefTerson County. 

Mr. Wilson was married in November, 1871, to Miss Sarah L., daughter of Isaac 
W. Sadler, of Jefferson County. They have two children — Allena and Annie. Mr» 
and Mrs. Wilson belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

"AnrrtoA pp (G5\/\/lPAon the junior member of the firm, was born Decem- 
^amexS C£. ^ y* ''■■®0'lj ber, 1851, in Blount County, Alabama; was edu- 
cated in private schools ; also a clerk of Wilson & Martin, of Elyton, for two years ; 
subsequently in the employ of Hawkins & Earle for three years, and an employe 
of several other firms of Birmingham, thus giving him a practical knowledge of the 
mercantile business in various branches. In 1878 he became a partner of his brother, 
.and has since continued to devote his time strictly to their many business interests. 
The success of this firm is due, in a great measure, to the wise policy and sound 
judgment of the brothers. They are both citizens of excellent standing, and with, 
ideas of a progressive order. 

Mr. Wilson married, in 1874, Miss Fannie, daughter of Stephen and Susaa 
(Mudd) Dupuy. They have a family of five children — Susie E., William L., James 
A., Luther E., and Mary F. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. 

® P CJ, Ts\r(Ii»rl ^^® been connected with the hardware trade since 



^hteen years of age, and is now one of the most 
prosperous merchants in this city. He is a native of Kentucky, born at Covington 
in August, 1852, and son of Samuel B. and Cordelia Laird. His father is Scotch- 
Irish, and his mother a native of England. They both came to America when young, 
and were married in Covington, Kentucky, where his father for a long time manu- 
factured tobacco. Samuel attended the schools of his native city, and then entered 



494 /effersoti Coiinty. 



the hardware house of R. W. Booth & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, with whom he was 
connected until 1875. He next embarked in trade for himself in Covington, where 
he prospered for seven years ; subsequently, for two years, in the same business, in 
Aurora, Indiana, and finally to Birmingham, in December, 1882, where he has since 
been identified, and has established an excellent reputation. 

He was married in 1875 to Miss Anna E. Stockton, of Covington, Kentucky. 
They have three children — Samuel B., Edgar, and Margaret C. 

/=\T'6^.~»^ /. ^ CV AfiPy.^«^ ^'as born in Limestone County, Alabama, 
©iftoma/ ©J. .aAAnforeL g.pt,^,,,,, .7, I857, and is a son of Thomas 
H. and Caroline Tate Ashford, natives of Alabama. Mr. Ashford attended private 
schools until the age of seventeen, when he entered the East Tennessee University 
at Knoxville, from which he graduated in 1877. In the autumn of the following 
year he entered the commercial college at Lexington, Kentucky, completing the full 
diplomatic course in five weeks. When his education was finished he went to Little 
Rock, Arkansas, as bookkeeper for Hendricks & Abies, dealers in paints, oils, glass, 
wall paper, sash, doors, and blinds. After four years in Little Rock, Mr. Ashford 
accepted a position as traveling salesman for the Cole Manufacturing Company, of Jlem- 
phis, Tennessee. After eight months he resigned this position, and came to Birming- 
ham in 1885, forming a partnership with H. H. Mayberry, in the paint, oil, glass, and 
wall paper business. By mutual consent this partnership was dissolved in October, 
1886, Mr. Mayberry withdrawing. Mr. Ashford then formed a stock company under 
the name of the Birmingham Paint, Glass, and Wall Paper Company, and was himself 
elected president. This is one of the strongest business houses in the city. 

Mr. Ashford was married December 31, 1885, to Miss Susie Swoope, of Wheeler, 
Alabama, daughter of Captain Charles C. Swoope. 

TT/-i-nT5Tr TJ T5 O Tol 1 "P"h ^^^ born April, 1830, in Davidson County, Tennes- 
llclliy il. Jjal(jillu see. He is the son of Samuel and Millicent Bar- 
clift. The father was a farmer, and at his death the son, then sixteen years old, assumed 
the duties of manager of the farm. After many years of success in the farming line, 
Mr. Barclift came to Blountsville, Alabama, where he remained for twelve years as a 
general merchant. Coming, finally, to Birmingham, he bought fifteen acres of city real 
estate and has had plain sailing since. 

Mr. Barclift was bailiff, county commissioner, and justice of the peace in Blouni 
County. 

In 1850 Mr. Barclift married Miss Susan Vaughan, of Blount County, to whom 
were born seven children. Luther M. and Isaac E. alone are now living. 

In December, 1870, he married Miss Clara Gillespie, of Blount County, daughter of 
John C. Gillespie, and to them one child, not living, was born. 

Mr. Barclift is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has been 
for thirty-five years. He is active in the discharge of his church duties, and especially 
the Sunday-school work. He is also a member in good standing of the Free and 
Accepted Masons. 

LTtr -n_„_l-:^a. !■„ was born in April, 1864, in Blount County, Alabama, 
. M. JjaiOllib, Ui., and is a son born to H. H. and Susan Vaughan Bar- 
clift. The father of our subject has been a prominent merchant for many years, and in 
his store, the son, early in life, was an assistant, and became thoroughly familiar with the 
details of commercial life. His educational advantages were not overlooked, however. 



Biographical. ' 495 



and he has the advantage of courses of studies pursued in the high schools of Blount 
County and the Southern Business College, of Louisville, Kentucky, of which latter 
institution he is a graduate. 

After leaving college he became shipping clerk and salesman for Allen, Scott & Co., 
of Birmingham, which position he filled efficiently for two years. 

In 1886 he formed a copartnership with his father in the wholesale and retail grocery 
business, which venture was highly profitable, and was continued until February, 1887, 
■when the firm determined to enlarge their business relations, and purchased the stock 
and good will of the old established firm of Enslen & Son, on Second Avenue, and are 
now thoroughly established in the wholesale and retail dry goods and grocery trade. 

Mr. Barclift is a young man whose success is to be attributed entirely to his devo- 
tion to his business and talents, which would assure him success in any calling in life. 

Mr. Barclift was united in marriage in 1885, with Miss Mecie A., daughter of J. L. 
and M. L. Gillespie, well-known residents of Jefferson county. 

With his wife he is a member of the M. E. Church, South. 

^Afl 1 1 1 "m TT'^Q t1 D V^O n POTr ^^^ torn November 4, 1843, at Wetumpka, 
1\ liildlli IkdiiD 1 dUUDJ Alabama, the son of Hon. William L. Yan- 
cey, the great orator and leader of the South, and his wife Sarah, nee Earle. .In the 
youth's early years his father moved to Montgomery, and in the schools of that city he 
was Ciirefully taught in the rudiments of a liberal education until his sixteenth year. 

William E. entered the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, as a cadet, and 
when the political revolution of 1860 began he had been advanced to midshipman. As 
indications of the crisis thickened he determined to return to his native State. The war' 
had not yet opened ; therefore, he repaired to the university, then a military school, at 
Tuscaloosa. After a few months' study there he was assigned, along with other cadets, 
to drill the volunteers of the Confederate Army in camp. 

Having been elected senior second lieutenant of Company E, Fortieth Regiment of 
Alabama Infantry, he followed the fortunes of Pemberton's army, of which it formed a 
part, in the IMississippi campaign. In the defense of Vicksburg against Grant's siege 
he was severely wounded. After the captured Confederates had been exchanged, the 
Fortieth Alabama was placed in the Army of Tennessee, then reorganizing under General 
Joseph E. Johnston, at Dalton, Georgia. In the early weeks of the great campaign, 
which soon began under that commander, the captain of Company E was killed, and 
•Lieutenant Yancey was promoted to that office, being then nineteen years old, and the 
youngest of the commissioned officers of his brigade. Shortly following this promotion 
he wa.s detailed to serve as inspector on the staff of Brigadier-General Alpheus Baker. 
In the latter days of the Georgia campaign Baker's brigade was ordered to the defense of 
Mobile. The brigade went thence to rejoin General Johnston in North Carolina, and 
surrendered there with his army. 

Captain Yancey entered business immediately on his return to Montgomery. First 
he began as salesman in a wholesale furnishing house ; for ten years he farmed ; for six 
years next following he kept the Talladega Springs, a summer resort ; next he spent a 
year as salesman in the wholesale grocery house of Keeble &Co., Selma, Alabama. Fol- 
lowing this occupation he built and operated a cotton-seed oil mill at Talladega for three 
years. While living in Talladega Captain Yancey was elected lieutenant-colonel of the 
Third Regiment Alabama State Infantry. 

November 8, 1864, Captain Yancey married Miss Mary, daughter of W. L. Lanier, 
a commission merchant, of New Orleans, then a refugee from the Federal military 
occupancy of that city. He is a prosperous merchant of Birmingham. 



/ 



496 Je^erson County. 



Captain and Mrs. Yancey live in Birmingham with their family of five children — 
one son and four daughters, his second daughter having married Hon. W. H. Skagg, a 
prominent banker and mayor of Talladega. 

The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

J- -_ p A 'Tl CI 'U ^ fXA cAn-vA ^'''s among the first merchants to engage in trade in 
amK$ U. 33UcH^i:^lt;j;Ul U Birmingham. He was born in Montgomery, Ala- 
bama, in October, 1852, and a son of George W. and Amanda C. Shackleford, who were 
respectively of English and Irish descent. The early advantages of education enjoyed 
by him were good, and were supplemented by a course at Hiawasse College, in Eastern 
Tennessee, after which he was employed in farming for a few years. In 1872 he came to 
Birmingham and engaged as a clerk in the general merchandise store of Terry & Lock- 
wood, one of the first stores in the town. He remained with them two years, and subse- 
quently opened a coal yard, which he operated for a time, and next devoted his attention 
to farming for three years. Returning to Birmingham he entered the employ of C. F. 
Enslen in the mercantile trade, and after a few years' service was admitted as a partner, 
which business was conducted under the firm name of Enslen & Son. This business 
prospered greatly, and on January 1, 1886, Mr. Shackleford purchased Mr. Enslen's inter- 
est, but still conducts the business under the old name. 

Mr. Shackleford is a thorough business man, and a respected member of society. He 
•was married in February, 1876, to Miss Willsi M., daughter of C. F. Enslen, President of 
the Jefferson County Savings Bank. Three children have been born to them— Walter E., 
Washington J., and May B. 

Jnn a $ ^rVim?! Vl ^® ^ native of Mississippi, was born in November, 1859, and is 
UIia§ JJI^ilUJaU ^£ German descent. His father, a foreigner by birth, became 
60 identified with the politics of Louisiana in the Revolutionary times, known as the 
reconstruction era, that he was elected sheriff of Jefferson Parish, and also a member 
of the convention called in that State to make a constitution. 

Jonas, his youngest son, was educated in New Orleans at the high schools, and, on 
leaving school, became a bookkeeper in Jackson, Mississippi. After a few years in this 
line he undertook the jewelry and grocery business at Edwards' Depot on his own 
account. He came to Birmingham in the spring of 1883 and opened a jewelry house, 
selling jewelry on the installment plan, and added to his enterprise an occasional turn 
in real estate, in both of which he has prospered. 

The chief characteristic of Mr. Schwab's success is his phenomenal energy and 
enterprising disposition, combined with a fertile business mind and tact so far reaching 
in its nature as to warrant the assertion that, had he had the capital at his command 
only two years ago he would to-day be the wealthiest young man in Birmingham. Not 
a few of the business men and capitalists of Birmingham are found ready to embrace 
his valuable business suggestions relative to investments, and in no single instance has 
any one suffered loss by the coming out of them. He may be classed to-day as one of 
the best posted young men in business that the town possesses. 

■|yr;_l^»-1 "lyr "Rnnnsin ^^^ ^°™ September 29, 1860, at Foxford, County 
JJlll^UdUi j4i. jauyyaU ^^^,^^ Ireland, and is the son of Peter and Honora 
O. (Byrne) Boggan. He was educated until his sixteenth year at the National School 
of his native town. He was then employed as clerk in Liverpool, England, and then 
was made cashier in the same business. In 1881 he came to America, and, after some 
excursions of observation, located in Birmingham as clerk to James O'Connor. Later 



Biographical. 497 



he became bookkeeper to Dr. M. H. Jordan. February 9, 1885, he began, in copartner- 
ship with Thomas F. Thornton, his countryman, to keep a small grocery house. The 
business prospered rapidly, and is now (1887) both wholesale and retail. 

Mr. Boggan was one of the organizers and charter members of the Ancient Order of 
Hibernians. 

September 29, 1886, Mr. Boggan married Miss Maggie, daughter of Patrick Horkan, 
of County Mayo, Ireland. 

^hnrm^ ]^ ^hnTJntnn ^^s bom in County Mayo, Ireland, December, IS.59, 
X = y. ' y}^^^ ^ and is the son of John and Julia Thornton, nee 

Byrne. He attended the National School of Ireland until his sixteenth year. In 1880 
he emigrated to Eufaula, Alabama, and engaged in merchandising on his own account. 
In 1884 he located in Birmingham and formed a copartnership with M. M. Boggan, who 
have established a successful wholesale and retail grocery business. 
Mr. Thornton is a member of the Catholic Church. 

SPf^R>(3P 1X7 ^raF?!?!"^ was born in December, 1854, in Knoxville, Ten- 
'^^'^^■y^ ''' • •^■^'-'1 i i*^ nessee, and is a son of a prominent contractor 
and builder of that city. Our subject left his studies at the age of fifteen, and became 
an apprentice to learn the trade of a painter in his native city. This occupied him for 
three years following, at the expiration of which he became a contractor in that line, 
and remained there one year. He came to Birmingham December 5, 1871, and received 
the appointment of foreman in the paint shops of the L. & N. Railroad, where he 
remained three years, and further perfected himself in his calling. He was extensively 
engaged in contracting until 1883, when he established his present business on Twenty- 
first Street. In that year Mr. Harris erected a handsome and commodious business 
house near First Avenue, and has since been engaged in the paint and wall paper busi- 
ness, in which he is doing the leading trade of the city, employing none but artistic 
■workmen. Mr. Harris has earned his success by faithful attention to his patrons, and 
by his superior workmanship. 

He was married in 1878 to Ella, daughter of John and Charlotte Evans, of La- 
Grange, Georgia. This union has been blessed with two children — Hallon M. and 
Fay O. 

M'\%f 'I \ KX iL proprietors of the " star " clothing house, 

areas XX eil ai^O JOrOtl^er, are among the most active, progressive, 
and enterprising merchants of Birmingham. Although but recent comers to the city 
they have established a reputation of dealing only in reliable and first-class goods, and 
they are the exclusive agents for several of the largest and most celebrated manufac- 
turers in the United States — among them we name Hammerslaugh Brothers, clothing, 
and Hanan & Sons, shoes. They also carry a full line of all goods pertaining to their 
trade. 

MARCUS WEIL, the senior member of the firm, was born in Europe in 1850. 
When sixteen years old he came to America, and entered the mercantile house of S. 
Weil & Brother, of Monroe, Louisiana, remaining with them and their successors until 
1879, when he began the general mercantile business for himself, in the same city, and 
continued very successfully until October, 1886, when he disposed of his goods and. 
removed to Birmingham. Mr. Weil has established a fine business reputation as a 
careful manager and safe financier, and is a man of excellent character. 

He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Legion of Honor, and the Benai Bereth. 
He married, in 1877, Miss Ella E. Leyens, of Vicksburg, Mississippi. 



498 Jefferso7i County. 



BEN WEIL, the junior partner, is also a native of Europe, born in 1853, but came 
to this country in 1869. He was also engaged in business in Monroe, Louisiana, and 
since 1881, as partner with his brother. He is one of the most genial and popular 
salesmen in the city, and possesses fine business qualifications. 

He was united in marriage in 18S3 with Miss Lillie Leyens. Mr. Weil is a member 
of the Legion of Honor and the Benai Bereth, 

A-r2 /^ I I ^'^s born in January, 1S62, in Parker Count)-, Texas, and 

n^OS JO, \3Vl<2.Z\ ig a gon ^f Tolbert F. and Mary J. (Simmons) Cheek. 
His father was a farmer. In 1872 he moved his family to Jefferson County. Amos B. 
attended the common schools of this county until his seventeenth year, when he 
entered the Commercial College at Lexington, Kentucky. Graduating from that college 
he returned to Birmingham, and engaged as bookkeeper to E. H. Roberts & Co., hard- 
ware. Pa.9sing through a period of real estate business on his own account, and grocery 
business as a partner in Daniel, Cheek & Hawkins, he reached his present status as 
senior partner in the prosperous firm of Cheek & Hawkins, wholesale and retail gro- 
cers. Mr. Cheek is a member of the Baptist Church. In January, 1883, he married 
Miss Mary O. Loveless, daughter of Milton Loveless, of Jefferson. They have two 
children. 

tvPP.A^^ r) TJ°.-.»...Rt ./« A is one of the representative and progressive busi- 

He was born March 20, 1852, and is a son of James A. and Susan C. (Dupuy) Hawkins, 
■who were also natives of Jefferson County. The grandfather of our subject came to 
this section when the region was inhabited by Indians, being one of the first settlers. 
He took up large tracts of land and was a successful planter and farmer, having a large 
estate. 

Alfred was well educated, having the advantages of the preceptorship of the well- 
known educators and instructors, Professors Lovett and Robinson. His early life was 
passed in agricultural pursuits, and in 1880 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Jefferson 
County. The arduous duties of this position he filled for over a period of six years. 
He subsequently served the county as deputy tax collector and also as assessor. 

Mr. Hawkins began his business life in Birmingham as a partner in the grocery 
firm of Daniels, Cheek & Hawkins, which association was continued until 1886, when 
Mr. Daniels retired, and the present popular business firm of Cheek & Hawkins have 
continued the trade. Their location is on Twentieth Street, between Second and Third 
Avenues, where they are successfully conducting the wholesale and retail grocery busi- 
ness. Mr. Hawkins has an extensive acquaintance, reaching into every portion of the 
county, and is universally respected. 

Mr. Hawkins was married October, 1877, to Miss Francis E., daughter of Dr. T. F. 
and Mary J. (Simmons) Cheek. Mrs. Hawkins' mother was a daughter of the celebrated 
Dr. A. Q. Simmons, whose liver regulator has attained a world-wide fame. 

This union has been blessed with five children — Mamie C, Talbert F. (deceased), 
Guy D. v., Alga, and Johnston — the first male born in North Birmingham — named in 
honor of Colonel J. W. Johnston, president of the North Birmingham Land Company, 
whose lands are composed of the old Hawkins plantation, and in which corporation Mr. 
Hawkins is one of the largest stockholders. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in 
which he has served as elder for twelve years. 



Biographical. 499 



'\jj Tf -K< r r was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, May '16, 1838. His 

hi ry. Tl< J\sl|y father, Jonathan Naff, was a practicing physician in Jefferson 
and Anderson Counties in that State for more than forty years. His mother, Elya C. 
Massengill, and also his father were Tennesseans by birth. 

Young Naff attended school until he was eighteen years old. The last school he 
attended was Rittenhouse Academy, at Kingston, Tennessee. He was engaged in teach- 
ing from the time he was twenty years old until he was forty-five. He taught in various 
places in Alabama for twenty-one years, and became a citizen of the State in 1861, and 
with some slight exceptions has lived here ever since. In 1881 he was appointed Super- 
intendent of Education for Tallapoosa County, by Hon. H. Clay Armstrong, and was 
regarded by Mr. Armstrong as one of his most efficient co-workers. As an educator and 
disciplinarian he was without a superior in East Alabama; and such confidence did our 
State Superintendent have in his efficiency and ability that he was one of the few 
teachers, chosen from various sections of the State, to read an original treatise before the 
Educational Convention held in Birmingham in July, 1882. 

He was a private in Company A, of the First Alabama Regiment, and had a war 
•experience extending from February, 1862, to the close. As an interesting part of his 
experience, it may be stated that he was captured at Island No. 10, on the Mississippi, 
and imprisoned at Camp Butler in Illinois in 1862. After having been in prison three 
months, acting on the principle that all is fair in war he wrote ten different passes, on 
each of which he counterfeited three different handwritings, and so perfectly did he 
imitate the signatures of the commanding officer and those countersigning, that the 
genuineness of the signatures was not questioned for a moment. By this means he and 
ten of his companions escaped, and in one month were safe within the Confederate 
lines. A minute account of this trip space will not permit to be given, but it was full of 
thrilling and interesting details. Mr. Naff was married July 12, 1860, to Miss Sarah C, 
daughter of Mr. J. C. Westbrook, now of Birmingham. He has nine children, all living 
in this county — Dr. John M., Annie E., Joe V., William T., Jennie A., Henry J., Katie 
R., Samuel T., and Stephen B. 

From January 17, 1884, to July of 1886, he successfully merchandised with Mr. 
Samuel Torrey in Birmingham, and from that date has continued the business as a 
partner of Mr. W. T. Burney. 

J I "%/ -fO I was born at Greensboro, Alabama, November 7, 1860, 

Oyl^ A. JOUCl^ell^ilip a„^ jg a j.qjj „{ James S. and Margaret Buchanan, 
natives of Alabama. His father is a contractor and builder. Mr. Buchanan's education 
was altogether practical, he having left home at the age of eight to accept a position as 
clerk in the book store of John G. Apsey, of Marion. He remained in the book store 
thirteen months, and then accepted a position in the general merchandise store of W. 
H. Figuet, of Marion, where he remained several years. He came to Birmingham in 
1882, and clerked in the grocery store of Louis Braun, for four years. He began busi- 
ness for himself in July, 1886, opening a grocery store on Second Avenue, where he has 
been very successful in business. He was married in June, 1884, to Miss Delia Cord- 
well, of Selma, and has one child. Mr. Buchanan is a member of the Baptist Church, 
and an honored citizen. 



500 Jefferson County. 



(^ A/I PPI n m rp Q> o »♦ t»\ / '^^^ '^°^" ^" Tippha County, Mississippi, in February,. 
^ yv iiLiu.ri^ <>A. Jcye-l [^ ^g^g^ ^^^^ j^ ^f distinctively Southern stock. His 

father, Dr. James F. Berry, was a native of Soutli Carolina, and practiced his profession 
for many years in Pontotoc and Tippha Counties, Mississippi. His mother's maiden 
name was Eliza J. Wood ; she was a native of Georgia. 

Our subject was educated in private schools, and at the age of fourteen entered the 
wholesale mercantile house of Taylor & McEwen, of Memphis, Tennessee. He subse- 
quently was connected with Sadler & Ward, as clerk, of Okolona, Mississippi, and con- 
tinued with them three years. 

This firm dissolving he became a partner in the extensive grocery house of John- 
ston, Baskon & Co., but after an association of one year withdrew from that firm and 
formed a partnership with E. R. Ward, one of his old employers, under the firm name 
of Ward & Berry. 

They prosecuted the general merchandising business very successfully for five years, 
when j\Ir. Berry retired from the firm and engaged in the cotton trade at IMobile, first 
in connection with Thomson & Gates, for three years, and subsequently as a buyer for 
Eastern markets. 

In 1882 he came to Birmingham to reside, where he has been in successful business 
up to the present writing. He was associated for nearly three years with Colonel J. M.. 
Thomson, in the real estate business, and since the dissolution of that alliance has 
vigorously prosecuted that important branch of business under the firm name of 
William E. Berry & Co. 

Jlr. Berry has been a heavy operator, and has accumulated a handsome fortune. 
His success is merited, and his standing among his former business associates and the 
general public is of high order. 

He is a widower, with one child, a bright boy of eleven years of age, the legacy of 
a devoted wife, who died at Okolona, Mississippi, November 14, 1877. 



[ A N (^rtlnrr is a native of Pickens County, Alabama, and was born 



^ai I ic.*a (3/ ». v-^vji 1 ly January 8, 1842. His father was Eli T. Going, and his 
mother, Jane M. Sommerville, and both were natives of South Carolina. His descent 
is Scotch-Irish. His great grandparents were early settlers of Virginia, and on the 
father's side were in the Revolutionary war. His immediate parents were early settlers 
of Alabama, and have been residents of Pickens County for over fifty years. His father 
lived a short while in Tuscaloosa County, but his parents were married in Pickens 
County. There were seven children in the family, of whom the subject of this sketch 
is the second child. Five of this family of children are still living, four of whom are 
residents of Birmingham, and one in Pickens County. 

The subject was reared in Pickens County, and received his preliminary education 
there, and finished his studies at the University of Alabama. In 1861 he left the uni- 
versity and joined the first company that entered the Confederate service, known as 



Biographical. 505.'- 



the Lane Guards. He entered the service as private, and was in the war until April, 
1865, when he was first lieutenant of a company in the Forty-second Alabama Regi- 
ment. He was severely wounded at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, with the regi- 
mental colors in his hand. He was disabled by this wound from active service for six 
months, and a part of the time was in the signal service. 

Mr. Going was at the following engagements : Corinth, siege of Vicksburg, Look- 
out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Stone Mountain, and from the latter place 
went to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to Benton, North Carolina. He served in the West- 
ern Army under Price, Pemberton, Cheatham, Hood, and Joseph E. Johnston. 

For six years after tlie close of the war he was a planter in Pickens County, and in 
November, 1872, came to Birmingham, and engaged in the general merchandise busi- 
ness, under the firm style of James A. Going & Co., and continued in the trade until 
1879. Since that time he has been one of the most active, successful, and reliable real 
estate dealers in Birmingham, few having handled as much property as he. At various 
times he has served on the board of aldermen and was one of its most influential mem- 
bers. He has also acted as mayor on many occasions. 

Mr. Going was married in 1865 to Miss Myrtis G. Billups, of Pickens County. Her 
ancestors came from South Carolina, and were early settlers in the State. 

He has three children, all of whom are living — William Rufus, with the Berney 
National Bank; Henry S., and Richard B., both attendants at the public schools in this 
city. 

Mrs. Going died on the 21st of July, 1886. Mr. Going is a member of and elder in 
the Presbyterian Church. 

"^o^n M ^\^r\rr\ A\r\r\ ^'fis born in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, May 29, 
^Onn I 1. LJiporT|X»)On jgoy .^nd reared and educated in South Carolina. 
He graduated at Erskine College with the highest distinction in a large class of unusual 
talent. He taught school one year after leaving college, and then studied law in the 
office of Cyrus B. Baldwin, Esq., of Houston, Mississippi, and after admission to the bar 
became a partner of Mr. Baldwin, one of the most eminent lawyers in Mississippi. After 
practicing for two years with great success, both gentlemen were nominated by their 
respective parties for the legislature, and both were elected, the county being entitled to 
two representatives. 

Colonel Thomson, at the expiration of his first term, was re-elected without ojjposi- 
tion, and two years afterward was elected to the State Senate, just as the war began. He 
made a faithful, intelligent representative of the people, and enjoyed pre-eminently their 
confidence and esteem. He was elected by the State convention of the Democratic party 
of Mississippi a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, in 1860. 

At the commencement of the war Colonel Thomson was offered the colonelcy of a 
Mississippi regiment, but on account of near-sightedness, superinduced by overstrained 
eyes, he declined it, being unwilling to lead men where he could not see. He was 
appointed first assistant quartermaster-general of the Army of Mississippi, with rank of 
lieutenant-colonel, of which army Jefferson Davis was then major-general. Afterward, 
when the Confederate Government was organized, he was transferred to the quarter- 
master's department, with the rank of major. Major Thomson gave the Confederacy 
the best service of his large capacities and business experience in the discharge of the 
onerous and laborious duties of his department, both in the field and at posts. 

After the war he located in Mobile and engaged in the cotton factory business, and 
met with good success until the panic of 1873 swept away values so greatly that he lost 
heavily on the handsome estate he had built up. He retired from business in Mobile in 



504 Jefferso7i Cotitity. 



1877, and lived a few years in Marion. While residing in Mobile Colonel Thomson was 
solicited, by some of the leading citizens, to become a candidate for the nomination for 
mayor, and afterward for the nomination for Congress, but in both instances he declined 
to engage in the contest. 

In January, 1882, Colonel Thomson came to Birmingham, and after thoroughly can- 
vassing its illimitable resources and great possibilities, he espoused the cause of Bir- 
mingham. With a vigorous pen and earnest enthusiasm he has contributed largely to 
its rapid growth. His investments were co-extensive with his money and credit. He 
has realized some very large profits. 

Since he came to Birmingham he has liquidated over thirty thousand dollars in cot- 
ton losses, and still owns, in real estate, property worth over one hundred thousand dol- 
lars in Birmingham and vicinity. The above will suffice as a reference to his business abil- 
ity and success, when it is remembered that the panic of 1873 left him almost penniless. 

Colonel Thomson has always been a consistent Democrat of the States Rights school, 
and has been an active worker and devoted to his party. In 1860 he canvassed his con- 
gressional district, which had formerly gave a Democratic majority of from four to five 
thousand, and he was instrumental in increasing the majority to twelve thousand. As 
a political speaker he is able eloquent and eft'ective. 

In Mobile he took an active part with pen and by speech to redeem Mobile and dis- 
trict from carpet-bag rule. He was elected a member of the city council of Jlobile in 
1872, and was president of the body. He acted as officiating mayor during the absence 
of the mayor, and was afterward solicited to become mayor, but declined. 

In 1880 he delivered an oration at Erskine College, South Carolina, that received a, 
perfect ovation, and was given a vote of thanks, and the suggestions of the speech were 
adopted by, the alumni association, and the organization of a fund for the endowment 
'of an alumni professorship. 

Colonel Thomson was married in November 1852, to Miss Martha S. Reynolds, of 
Hines County, Mississippi. To this union were born eight children — Joel R., deceased; 
Cecilia R., deceased, wife of W. E. JBerry, Esq.; Arabella, deceased; Bettie T., wife of 
Rev. James L. Brownlee, of Edwards, Jlississippi ; Mattie T., wife of N. C. Royster, of 
Birmingham ; John M., deceased; William R., deceased ; and Anna F., Colonel Thom- 
son's wife, died in Birmingham June 9th, 1885. He married his present wife, Miss 
Delia, daughter of the late Robert Keys, of Anderson, S. C., November 18, 18813. 

Colonel Thomson, for many years, has been an active worker and a consistent mem- 
•ber of the Presbyterian Church; he has served as elder and in other official capacities 
of the church several years with honor to himself and the church of his choice. He 
was one of the commissioners at the last meeting of the general assembly of the Presby- 
terian Church. He was one of the organizers of the Third Presbyterian Church of Bir- 
mingham, one of the most liberal contributors, and raised all the money to build the 
church. He has always taken an active part in Sabbath-school work. 

Colonel Thomson is one of Birmingham's most highly-esteemed and pubUc-spirited 
•citizens, and a liberal supporter of every good work which has for its object the general 
good and elevation of mankind. 

NpniPOmh F ^homCSOn The career of this gentleman has been active, 
J[^tlUJl^UmU J__. J^UUm_y$UU. and is interesting. He was born in Shelby- 
ville, Tennessee, December 25, 1844, and is of distinctively Southern lineage. His 
father, Joseph Thompson, was a native of North Carolina, and served for three years 
as sherifl" of Bedford County, Tennessee. His mother, whose maiden name was Anna 
E. Carey, was a native of Alabama. 



Biograpliical. 507- 



Our subject was prepared and entered college at the age of thirteen, and graduated 
from college, in Williamson County, Tennessee, in the class of 1862. He entered the 
Confederate service, in April of the same year, as a private in the First Tennessee 
Infantry, under Colonel George C. Maney, and at Tupelo, Mississippi, was discharged,, 
because he was considered too young for active service. Nothing daunted, he subse- 
quently entered the light artillery service, in an Arkansas regiment, and was soon after 
promoted to the lieutenancy of a party of scouts, and in that position was captured, 
with his command, at Chickamauga. He was subsequently paroled, and, of bis own 
choice, assigned to duty as a private in General Forrest's escort, with whom he remained 
until the surrender of that General at Gainesville, Alabama, April 12, 1865. 

After the close of the war Mr. Thompson selected the profession of law, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1866, commencing practice in Shelbyville, Tennessee ; subse- 
quently removed to Bardstown, Kentucky, where he continued two years ; from thence 
to Dallas. Texas, and thence to Louisville, Kentucky. In the meantime, he had been 
elected lecturer for the order of Good Templars, which position he held two years, and 
was subsequently elected State secretary and treasurer of that order, and was also editor 
of their official organ. 

Colonel Thompson was in the commercial business in connection with Chess, Carley 
& Co., for seven years, and was the organizer of the Mutual Gas Company, of Savan- 
nah, Georgia, of which corporation he was general manager for three years. 

Since 188.5 he has been one of the most active of the many real estate dealers iiL 
Birmingham, first in association with Jolm M. Haran, and since September, 1886, in 
connection with A. S. Elliott, under the firm name of Thompson & Elliot. This is now 
one of the leading firms of the citj' in their line of real estate, rental and insurance 
business, and have amassed handsome profits. They have now in their hands, besides 
a large line of valuable property, the sale and development of the Smithfield property,, 
the most desirable of all suburban lands. 

Colonel Thompson was married in November, 1866, to Miss Julia, daughter of 
Frank Queen and Mary M. Price, of Bardstown, Kentucky. Seven children bless this 
union — Frank J., Lizzie, Cary, Bain, Ernest, Paul, and Wright. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. Thompson, 
being a convert, was instructed and received into the Catholic Church, in 1882, by 
Bishop Gross, of Savannah, His former active temperance advocacy led him to inves- 
tigate and compare Catholic methods of temperance with non-Catholic, and he became 
very deeply imbued with the power of his church to accomplish good results in that 
direction. He wrote and published, in 1883, one of the strongest articles that had 
appeared in the Catholic World, entitled "The Church and Prohibition." This article 
was widely copied by both the Catholic and non-Catholic press of the country, and did 
much to remove from the mind of the general public the idea that the Catholic Church. 
opposed prohibition. He is a clear and logical writer, as well as a most pleasing and 
forcible speaker. 

Ffdm^'Pfi AAf^TZTJPn ^^ subject of this sketch, is the son of James W. and 
' Henrietta (Steber) Warren, natives of Dover, Kent County^ 
England, and was born in Coosa County, Alabama, April 5, 1838. His parents immi- 
grated to this country in 1835, and his father, who was formerly publisher of the Flag 
of the Union, published and edited for a number of years a paper at Tuscaloosa. 

His son, the subject of this sketch, attended the State University of Tuscaloosa, 
and when the war broke out enlisted in the Confederate service as private in Company 
A, of the Twenty-second Alabama Regiment, and was subsequently promoted to first 



_"5o8 Jefferso7i Cotmiy. 



lieutenant. Though shghtly wounded several times, he was not disabled, but continued 
in service until the surrender. He then returned home, and engaged in the mercantile 
business for three years, and then sold out, to embark in the manufacture of cotton 
gins, lumber, etc. He came to Birmingham in 1882, to engage in the buying and selling 
of real estate, in which business he has scored a most signal success. 

Mr. Warren was married in December, 1866, to Miss Vernon L. Kennedy, daughter 
of John S. and Mary E. Kennedy, of North Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Warren have two 
children — John K. and Edward Warren, Jr. 

Mr. Warren is a Mason, and also a member of the Knights of Honor and American 
Legion of Honor, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. -a 

Pharl(?C I If Inrtran^ ^^® born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1852. His 
V^ydrifel^J. ry. "Z'^''*"' parents were natives of Devonshire, England. He 
was educated at the private and public schools of his native city, and began business 
as clerk at an early age. He was subsequently engaged in the cotton and insurance 
business for four years, and came to Birmingham in 1883, where he engaged in the real 
estate business.' Soon after coming to the city he formed a partnership with J. T. Wil- 
son, and later W. E. Martin was admitted to a partnership, and the firm was changed 
to Wilson, Ingram &, Martin. 

The success of the firm of which he is a member is a conspicuous instance of the 
possibilities awaiting energy, integrity, and industry applied to Birmingham conditions. 

Mr. Ingram has contributed his full share to the remarkable prosperity of this 
home of young business men. To the absolute elements of a business character he 
adds the urbanity and thorough self-confidence of the man of society. His home is 
hospitable and well ordered, hence his citizenship is fruitful of many good results to 
the young city. 

Mr. Ingram was married in October, 1879, to Miss Catherine Hill, and they have 
three children — Hill, William Sims, and Robert H. F. He is a member of the Episcopal 
Church. 

organization, and is typical of the higher social class residing here. 

Thomas McAdory was by descent, both paternal and maternal, of Scotch extrac- 
tion, but was by birth a South Carolinian. He was born September 10, 1776, and was 
married young to Celia McShan. He first emigrated from his native State to Christian 
County, lived there a few years, and came to Alabama in 1818, a year before the admis- 
sion of the State into the Union. He settled in one of the valleys known then as a part 
of Blount County, but now in Jefferson. The place chosen for his residence is now a 
part of Birmingham. He died July 8, 1820, and, at the close of a useful and honorable 
life, was buried on a knoll 'neath the shade of trees near the present site of the Sloss 
Furnaces. Their children were James, Robert, Chambers, Mary, and Thomas. 

JAMES McADORY was born in South Carolina, York District, September 14, 1802, 
arriving in Alabama with his father in his sixteenth year. In his twenty-fourth year 
he married Nancy, the daughter of a North Carolina immigrant to the same vicinity, 
William R. Saddler. The Saddlers became highly influential in public and social life 
in this State. 

James McAdory gave especial attention to the education of his younger brothers 
and sisters, which the increasing settlements and rapidly-growing wealth of the State 




I ^> I 



Biographical. 511 



rendered far more easy to attain than in his own case, when the earlier pioneer's life 
was isolated from almost every incident of civilization. 

In the Creek War of 1830 James McAdory volunteered under General Andrew 
Jackson. He was commissioned captain of a company composed of Alabamians, many 
of the members being known personally to him. The war ended by the signal success 
of General Jackson's troops, Captain McAdory returning to the quiet of his plantation 
near Jonesboro. Those who followed his lead in war became his fast friends, and the 
perpetuity and warmth of his esteem was laid in the exalted manhood which the young 
officer had displayed in the exigencies of many trials on the field. 

When the war between the States had subsided, amid universal wreck of all around 
him, he was brave and hopeful. Three sons had been sacrificed on the altar of battle, 
but to the future he turned with reconciled faith. He was over sixty years old; his 
large fortune was fearfully depleted, but duty to the hour inspired him with high 
resolve. Time passed on, fortune began to smile, and the light of an infinitely grander 
era began to dawn, when death came to him. 

CHAMBERS McADORY, son of James and Nancy (Saddler) McAdory, was born 
in JefTerson County April 12, 1834. He was educated as a Southerner then was, partly 
at private school and later at the university. He graduated in the class of 1857 at 
the University of Alabama. In 1858-59 he studied at the Jefferson Medical College 
at Philadelphia. In 1860 he became a planter in Smith Count}', Mississippi. Entering 
the war as a private, he was, after some service, promoted to a lieutenancy. October 
2, 1862, at the battle of Corinth, he was seriously wounded and captured. In 1867 he 
returned to his old home at Jonesboro and began a career of successful merchandising, 
from which he has retired, and is now a resident of Birmingham. 

Chambers McAdory was elected to the legislature of Alabama as a Democrat in 
1882, and re-elected in 18S-1. Before then he had been a justice of the peace and a 
■county commissioner for Jefferson. 

October 16, 1861, Mr. McAdory was married to Miss Maria W. Jordan, a member 
of one of the oldest and most respected families of Jefferson County. Sixteen years 
of happy life and a family of six children bless their union — Sallie E., Nannie S., Morti- 
mer J., James, Amy W., and Mattie M. Her death occurred October 25, 1877. 

In 1879 he was again married, to Miss Leonora Richardson, of Greene County, Ala- ^'" 
hama. 

Mr. McAdory is a Free Mason in good standing. 

fTIvrfp I Mf7(7?JrV °^® °^ *^® va.asi enterprising and successful of the 
V.^l|^UL, CJ, lTiL/V.^U.lj^) young business men of Birmingham, is a native of 
Alabama. 

He was born near Montgomery, August 8, 1861. His family name originated in 
Scotland, and their descendants were settlers in the early days of the republic. 

The parents of our subject were Dr. J. M. and Hertaline E. (Motley) McCary, 
both being natives of Alabama. His father, a successful physician, entered the South- 
ern service early in the war, and was killed in battle near Atlanta, Georgia, in the year 
1863, leaving his mother and himself, an only son. 

The subject of this sketch attended school until he was fifteen years old, when he 
kept books for his stepfather, J. P. Allen, at Jemison, Alabama. At the end of the 
year he attended Goodman's Commercial College at Nashville Tennessee, where he 
graduated in 1877. He then went to Montgomery, Alabama, and accepted a position as 
bill clerk for Goetter, Weil & Co., a large wholesale dry goods house. By hard work 
and faithful attention to his duties he won the good will of his employers, and was pro- 



512 Je^erson County. 



moted from one position to another. In about two years the Pratt Saw Mill Company 
of Verbena, Alabama, recognizing his superior business qualities, offered him a good 
position at an advanced salary, which he accepted, and remained there two years. He 
returned to Montgomery and accepted a position with Hobbie & Teague, wholesale 
grocers, where he made many friends in the Capital City and throughout the State. 

In June, 1884, Mr. McCary concluded to branch out into the world for himself, and 
located in the city of Anniston, in the real estate, commission, and insurance business, 
where, by his indomitable energy, pleasant address, and superior business qualities, he 
established a fine paying business, and won the confidence of the companies, houses 
and parties whom he represented. 

But Anniston was too small a place for such an enterprising and active gentleman as 
Mr. McCary, so he came to Birmingham, and in June, 1886, he accepted a partnership 
in the firm of J. R. Adams & Co., savings bank, real estate, and insurance agents. 

On the 1st of September last, Mr. McCary withdrew from the firm and opened up 
for himself, under the firm name of C J. McCary & Co., at 1924 First Avenue, "ground 
floor." He fitted up his office in elegant style, making it one of the most convenient 
and attractive real estate and insurance offices in the city. 

Mr. McCary has displayed such fine business tact and energy, and by his integrity and 
fidelity to the Interest of his patrons, that he has made a host of friends in the Magic 
City, and his business has grown to large proportions. He is one of the most thorough 
and reliable business men in Birmingham, and he has, in a very short period, accumu- 
lated a handsome fortune. 

On January 1st, of this year, Mr. McCary associated with him as a partner, Mr. 
John S Storrs, late with the Shelby Iron Company, Shelby Iron Works, Alabama, and 
the firm is now McCary, Storrs & Co. 

Seldom are found, associated in one business, two men with such energy and fine 
business qualifications, and by their hard work, abiUty, and integrity, they have been 
wonderfully successful. 

A few minutes in their offices, watching the eager inquiries for real estate, stocks 
and bonds, recalls very forcibly scenes in the New York Exchange. 

Grt "KX ' I was born June 13, 1853, in Harris County, Georgia, where his 

eO. vJ. JiLlieS father, the Kev. Thomas J. Miles, was a resident and a minister 
of the Baptist Church for over forty years, and also conducted a plantation. 

Our subject remained upon the home plantation until twenty-two years of age, 
receiving a good practical education in private and high schools. He subsequently was 
given an interest in the crops, and gave his attention chiefiy to cotton raising, his yearly 
crop averaging one hundred bales. In the spring of 1879, he went to Montgomery, and 
for a few months was engaged in dealing in lumber, but was induced to come to Birming- 
ham, where his brother, N. F. Miles, was engaged in the grocery business. He was 
subsequently admitted as a partner in the grocery business, and continued until failing 
health compelled him to abandon active business. After a few months of travel in the- 
Northwest he returned to Birmingham with health restored, and engaged in the real 
estate business in September, 1886, with his brother, R. J. Miles, under the firm name 
of G. G. Miles & Co., and in the great prosperity of this section this firm has been 
prosperous, and established a sound and lucrative trade. They have also a lumber yard 
and planing mill under the firm name of R. J. Miles & Co., with a substantial growing 
trade, and own considerable real estate. 

Mr. Jliles was married February 20, 1884, to Miss Mattie, daughter of James H. 
Hine, of Athens, Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Miles are active members of the First Bap- 



Biographical. 5 1 5 



tist Church of Birmingham, in which he haa served as church clerk the past seven 
years, and in the Sunday school has also been a devout worker, being at present assist- 
ant superintendent. He has taught one class for a period of seven years. 

With close attention to business and hard work Mr. Miles has accumulated consid- 
erable wealth, and now owns one of the prettiest and most comfortable homes in the 
city, on North Highlands, and he is recognized a.s one of the leading substantial business 
men of Birmingham. 

The real estate business of which he is the senior member having increased so 
rapidly made it necessary to take in an additional partner, in consequence of which, 
on February 1, 1887, Mr. W. T. Magee, of Terrell, Texas, became a partner in the busi- 
ness, and the firm name changed to Miles, Magee & Co. With the shrewd business tact 
of Mr. Magee, added to this already successful firm, we can but bespeak for them a 
bright and glorious future. 

•O , "\)[/ i \A/'\ * local minister of the M. E. Church, was born 

J\eV. XX np. IS. XX liSOip, October, I822, in Greenvllle, south Carolina. He 
is of Scotch-Irish descent, and a son of Allen and Nancy (Cantrell) Wilson, also South; 
Carolinians. 

Our subject received his rudimental education in the private schools, attending 
until nineteen years of age. His first departure in the busy world was to carry the 
express mails from Elyton to Huntsville, which he performed for two years. He next 
turned his attention to tilling the soil, merchandising, and tanning, until in 1862, when 
he was elected Probate Judge of Jefferson County for a term of four years, serving 
faithfully and efficiently, and declining re-election. After serving his term of office he 
resumed farming and merchandising, and continued until 1882, when he entered into a 
partnership with his son, P. B. Wilson, in the real estate business, where his efforts 
have met with the success deserving untiring devotion to business and honorable dealing. 
Mr. W^ilson has been thrice married ; has eleven children by his first wife, all grown 
and living. His present wife is a daughter of Rev. John R. Gamble, of Walker County,. 
Alabama. 

Mr. Wilson has always been an earnest member and active worker in his church, 
and has contributed his time and money most liberally. He is a Christian gentleman, o£ 
whom it is a pleasure to thus briefly record the leading events of an honorable and use- 
ful life. In his business transactions he has never sued a man, nor been sued. 

PERRY B.WILSON, son of Rev. Wm. L. Wilson, is a native of Jefferson County, born 
in November, 1853. After finishing his early studies, and at the age of twenty-one, h« 
engaged with his brother in the business of tanning leather in St. Clair County, Ala- 
bama, where he remained three years. Subsequently he joined his brother, T. M. Wil- 
son, in general merchandising, in the same county, remaining there two years longer, 
and from thence to Birmingham and embarked in business for himself, but sold out at 
the end of one year to enter the more profitable and promising occupation of real estate 
dealer. 

He has been associated with his father since that period, and has gained the repu- 
tation of being a shrewd, careful, and conservative dealer. He was married in Novem- 
ber, 1876, to Miss Hepsey E., daughter of A. J. and Nancy (Truss) Reed, old 
settlers of the county. Five children have been born to them — Walker N., Maude M., 
William J., John J., John W., and Dennis M. They are members of the church o£ 
their father. 

28 



5 1 6 Jefferson County. 



©yiPfiarrj ©. i.mim Z.t°ouSc=.:'.'r.; '.', 



Pickens Court 
son of James R. 

and Elizabeth (Matthews) Smith, natives of Georgia, and descendents of some of the first 
colonial settlers and participants in the struggle for American independence, the grand- 
father, seven brothers, and a brother-in-law, the celebrated scout, Robinson, having 
iought through the entire war, at the close of which they separated and settled in the 
difl'erent States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Horseshoe 
Robinson subsequently settled in Alabama, below Tuscaloosa, where he died. Some of 
his descendants still reside in Tuscaloosa County. 

The father of our subject was a Baptist minister, noted for his native talent and 
eloquence. After having served for several years as a traveUng missionary, he removed 
with his family, soon after the birth of the subject of this sketch, to Gainesville, Ala- 
bama, where he became pastor of the church at Sumterville (then Patton's Hill). About 
this time the mother and one sister died of typhoid fever. Soon after this, the father 
removed with his family, consisting of five sons and five daughters, to Tuscaloosa 
County, and engaged in farming and the mercantile business until 1853, when he sold 
out and removed to North Port, Alabama, where he embarked in the mercantile trade, 
continuing until the breaking out of the war. It was here our subject received from 
Professor Tarrant his last instruction in school. In 1857 he commenced teaching, and 
on March 27, 1861, entered Company C (Captain Delay), Ninth Mississippi Regiment, 
the first accepted by the Confederate authorities from the State. He served until sworn 
out, when he was discharged from field service in January, 186-t. He continued in the 
army, however, serving as hospital steward of the Eighteenth Alabama Regiment, to 
which he had been transferred, until April, 1865, when he returned to Mississippi and 
resumed teaching. 

In 1870 he married Miss Nannie Richardson, daughter of Green "\V. and Nancy 
(Wilder) Richardson, of Pinckney County, Alabama. In 1876 he removed to Columljus, 
Mississippi, and engaged in the insurance business. In May, 1885, he came to Birming- 
ham, and became at once identified with the real estate business in connection with E. 
H. Terry, and they will long be remembered as one of the energetic, successful firms 
who contributed largely in building up the Magic City. Mr. Smith's family consists of 
himself, wife, and two boys — Albert Barnes and Jesse Hopkins, who reside in Columbus, 
Mississippi. 

Jr>hn U Chi 1 1 man ^^® born in Gainesville, Alabama, in May, 1855, and is a 
099 Y' pClll/ndl; son of Rev. Charles A., and Martha Hammond Stillman. 
His father is a native of South Carolina and his mother of Georgia. His father is a 
Presbyterian minister. 

Mr. Stillman attended private schools until the age of fifteen, when he spent one 
year at the State University at Tuscaloosa, and then entered the mercantile business as 
clerk in a book store. He clerked for difi'erent firms for ten years. Coming to Birming- 
ham in August, 1886, he formed a partnership with H. D. Smith, for the purpose of 
carrying on the business of real estate agents, at which they have been very suc- 
cessful. 

Mr. Stillman was postmaster at Pratt Mines for five years. He was married Octo- 
ber 17, 1883, to Miss Mary Brittan, of Montgomery, Alabama, daughter of Patrick 
Henry and Ora Brittan. They have one child— Clarence B. 







■l^^L-' 



Biographical. 519 

C C ^ \\' ^^^® born in Marengo County, Alabama, December 14, 1837. Though 
V3 . lA M 1 5 ^ native of the wealthiest section of the Statf^ it was his lot to be born 
poor. Left an orphan at the age of thirteen he hired himself to a farmer at five dollars 
per month. At the end of the year, Mr. Lenmel Sledge, a wealthy planter of the 
neighborhood, observing the industry and good habits of the young man, took him to 
his home, kept him in his family for two years and sent him to school. The big-hearted 
old man treated him as one of his own children. After he left the house of Mr. Sledge 
he engaged in teaching school and clerking in order to complete his education. He 
graduated at the Southern University at Greensboro, in 1862. He went immediately 
from college to the Confederate Army, where he served as a soldier to the close of the 
war. After the war he joined the Alabama Conference and served as itinerant preacher 
until 1871, when failing health induced him to withdraw from the ministry. Mr. Ellis, 
while on his way to Blount Springs for his health, passed by way of Birmingham just as 
the lots were first on the market. Believing that Birmingham wa.s destined to be a great 
•city he invested, and in January, 1872, became one among the first citizens. Mr. Ellis 
engaged in merchandising. Though in that day merchandising was a slow business in 
Birmingham, yet he managed to hold his own and accumulate some property. Regain- 
ing his health in 1879, he resumed the traveling connection in the North Alabama Con- 
ference. In 1884, his family being large, he retired from the Conference and settled in 
Tuscaloosa, where he remained only part of the year 1885. In September, 1885, he returned 
to Birmingham, built a comfortable residence on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 
Twenty-sixth Street, with the expectation of spending the remainder of his days in the 
city. Mr. Ellis, after his return to Birmingham, concluded to engage in the real estate 
business, chiefly to look after his own houses, not dreaming that he would in so short 
-a time have more work than any one man could do. During the brief space of 
eighteen months he has done a very large real estate business. 

'fsl^nVlPTli Tl ^mit-Vl '^^ native of Virginia, and was born December 30, 1850. 
JlUUUi't U. iSiUitU jjg jg ^ g^j^ q£ ^y Temple and Margaret Reid Smith, 
natives of Virginia. Mr. Smith was educated at the private schools of his native 
count)', and engaged in the general merchandise business at Luray, Virginia, at the age 
of seventeen, where he remained several years. 

He came to Birmingham in 1875, and clerked for awhile, and was subsequently 
elected city treasurer, which position he held for a short time, and was then elected city 
clerk, which position he held for ten months. He subsequently was engaged in the 
coal business, and in July, 1886, opened a real estate office. In September of that year 
he formed a partnership with Mr. J. H. Stillman, and the firm is now Smith & Stillman. 

Mr. Smith is, by appointment of the Governor, a notary public. He has been a 
vestryman in the Episcopal Church. He has built up a large and lucrative real estate 
business, and is a large stockholder in the Smithfield Land Company. 

JC7 lYYcttihhM^t^f^lT ^'^^ born August 25, 1819, in Sampson County, North 
. Vi/. W UobUL \B\2)i\ Carolina. He was the youngest of thirteen children. 
His father was a farmer of the slaveholding class, but relied upon the labor of his 
children, also, at the plow. The educational advantages he was able to give them were 
limited, and were confined, as far as they went, to a few months' attendance at the 
neighboring common schools. He set before them an example of industry, honesty, 
and patriotism, and thus instructed we will see that John C, of whom we have par- 
ticularly to write, received a foundation of character upon which from early manhood 
he has erected a substantial and useful life. In 1827 his father moved his family south- 



520 Jefferso7i County. 



ward in search of better land. He located in Fayette County, Georgia, and, after six 
years of hard work on the farm, both parents died. There were ten sons and three daugh- 
ters left, and John C, then fifteen years of age, was the youngest. Immediately after 
the loss of his parents he set out to gain something more of an education, leaving an 
older brother in charge of the home. The Creek War breaking out at this time (1836) 
this brother volunteered under the American flag, and his course compelled John C. 
to abandon his laudable purpose to go to school. He took his brother's place on the 
farm, and labored faithfully to keep up the support of the household. In 1837 he suc- 
ceeded in acquiring a few more and final months at school. In 1838 he enlisted in the 
ranks of the Federal volunteers, and the command to which he belonged was ordered 
to Fort Scudder, Cherokee County, Georgia. The Seminole war was then in its last 
stages, and the removal of the Cherokees was soon consummated. Upon the fulfillment 
of these purposes, which originated the call for volunteers, the troops were disbanded. 

In 1839 Mr. Westbrook was employed by a clock manufacturer as traveling agent. 
In the fall of 1840 Mr. Westbrook immigrated to Tallapoosa, one of the central counties 
of Alabama, where he opened a farm, established a grist and saw mill, run by water 
power, and carried on a mercantile business, all on a small scale. His peaceful nature, 
but frank and courageous bearing, gave him good standing in a new country. He mar- 
ried in November, 1840, Elizabeth A. Lamberth, of Tallapoosa County, whose family 
had immigrated to Alabama that year. 

In 1883 Mr. Westbrook moved to Birmingham. For ten years before that date he 
had bought and sold real estate in the city. Upon his removal to the city he entered 
largely into the market, buying eight thousand dollars worth of property, and improving 
it as he invested. Some example of his operations may be cited as illustrious of the suc- 
cess which good judgment and pluck and square dealings may attain. He offered some 
suburban real estate in 1884 at two hundred and fifty dollars per acre. It commands, 
January, 1887, two thousand dollars per acre. He bought seventeen acres in the spring 
of 1886 for one hundred and sixty dollars per acre. This now commands two thousand 
dollars per acre. Upon this latter tract he discovered a limestone bed, the stone being 
75 per cent. lime. Besides operating on the suburbs, Mr. Westbrook has bought and 
sold some of the choicest lots in the business part of the city, with high profits. He 
had been a practical coal miner in the meantime, and in mercantile business in the pro- 
duce line. 

His marriage bore five children, one of them a son. The four daughters, now mar- 
ried and living near him in Birmingham, are the only survivors. He is connected with 
several corporations, among which we name, president of the Western Valley Street 
Railway; also, holds a directory in the Birmingham Agricultural Works. 

A physical peculiarity Mr. Westbrook mentions in regard to himself may be worthy 
of mention. His average sleep out of twenty-four hours has not exceeded four hours 
as far back into his youth as his memory goes. 

A M T-Tnn'Rx/ was born in Circleville, Ohio, in 1852, and was reared and edu- 
' t^ cated there, graduating at Otterbein University, which was 

located at Westville, where his parents had moved when he was a child. His father, 
Rev. William Hanby, was widely known throughout the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, as a man of great piety, strong character, and wonderful executive 
ability. He filled the office of bishop in his church, the United Brethren in Christ, 
for many years, with marked success, and died leav-ing a name honored by all who had 
ever known him. 



BiographicaL 521 



The subject of this sketch was the youngest child in the family. It -n-as quite 
natural that he should inherit many good qualities from so worthy a parent. Among 
these may be mentioned a keen sense of justice, personal honor, and executive ability. 
On the advice of his physician he removed South in 1880. Birmingham was then a 
promising young city of five thousand population. Here he engaged as bookkeeper and 
clerk. His methodical and correct business habits, coupled with industry, soon enabled 
him to command a line salary, and right at this point he laid the foundation of a very 
successful and not uneventful business career in the New South. Saving what money 
he could, he invested it in real estate. At this time a small amount of money purchased 
considerable property. He embarked in the real estate and insurance business in 1882, 
which he has since followed with uniform and unvarying success, and has made large 
profits for his friends who invested through him, and has accumulated, in his own name, 
a very handsome fortune. During all his career as a real estate man, his course has 
been characterized by great energy, perseverance, and 8ucce.ss. From the beginning of 
his Birmingham life he has labored for the success not alone of himself as an individual, 
but for the city as a whole. The latest recognition of Mr. Hanby's worth as a business 
man, was his selection by the East Lake Land Company as its secretary and treasurer. 

Mr. Hanby was married, in 1833, to Mrs. Hattie W. Hudson, nee Jarmon, only 
daughter of Captain James T. Jarmon, widely known in Alabama as a popular steamboat 
captain, who also served in the Confederate Army with distinction. Mrs. Hanby 
inherits, through her mother, qualities and characteristics which distinguished some of 
the most renowned families of South Carolina and Virginia — the Saxons of the former 
State, and the Lees of the latter. She is greatly esteemed as a person of pleasant, social 
gifts, and charming manners. She is a magnet in all social circles, and a consistent mem- 
ber of the Episcopal Church. 

Mr. Hanby is a member of the Methodist Church, and also belongs to the Knights 
of Honor. 

His home is in North Birmingham, and is one of the prettiest in the city. 

vas born in Marshall County, Mississippi, in 1842. His 
xirents were natives of Virginia. In 18.57 Mr. Shepherd 
went to Germantown, Tennessee, and clerked for his brother in the dry goods business 
until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in Company D, First Mississippi 
Light Artillery. Mr. Shepherd was several times promoted, attaining the rank of major 
during the last year of the war. After the close of the war he engaged in farming for 
five years at Oak Ridge, Mississippi, after which he was engaged in the railroad business 
for ten years. He came to Birmingham in 1881 without money, and engaged in the real 
estate business, in which he has been very successful, having accumulated a large for- 
tune. Others, acting on his advice, have made large fortunes in the same kind of ven- 
tures. 

He was married in March, 1863, to Miss Bettie G. Hardaway, of Mississippi, who 
died in 1876, leaving two children. He was married to his present wife in February, 
1881. She was Miss Kate Darby, of Talladega County. 

Mr. Shepherd is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is superintendent 
of a Sunday school. 

one of the best known citizens of Jefferson 
County. His handsome person and cordial 
manner give him recommendation everywhere. He was born in Trussville, Octo- 
ber 7, 1839, and is the son of Robert J. and Nancy M. (Hale) Hagood. His 
father was an immigrant from South Carolina, who came to Jefferson among the early 



(S. 9. l)Kep§er4 j;;^ 



r^ufux«> ,K. JfagooiL l^ 



522 Jefferson County. 



settlers. His mother was a native of Kentucky. Robert J. Hagood was a farmer and 
merchant at Hagood's Cross Roads until 1860, when he died. Rufus H. attended the 
common schools of the county until eighteen years old, when he entered the mercantile 
business as his father's partner. Thus engaged in 1860, in his twenty-second year, he 
volunteered as a private, and was elected first lieutenant, in Company C, Nineteenth 
Alabama Regiment, Colonel (afterward the famous General) Joseph Wheeler, com- 
manding. For three years Lieutenant Hagood commanded his company in the absence 
of the captain, or in the vacancy in the office. He belonged to a regiment which first 
saw fire at the greatest battle of the war, Shiloh, at which he acquired distinguished 
reputation. No regiment in the Confederate army did better service on many fields 
which gave character to the fighting qualities of the Southern soldiers. He was wounded 
December, 1862, at Murfreesboro, under Bragg, and disabled by his wound for six 
months. He was again wounded at Resacca, under General Joseph E. Johnston. He 
was captured in one of Hood's battles around Atlanta, July 28, 1864. Among other 
prisoners he was carried to Johnson's Island, Ohio, and was not released until the close 
of the war. 

Returning to Jefi'erson, Mr. Hagood began to farm. In 1874 he was elected sheriff 
of Jefferson County. In 1884 he began the real estate brokerage business and a gen- 
eral land speculation on his own account. His success has been altogether satisfactory, 
and he is now in the enjoyment of an assured fortune. 

April, 1866, a year after his release from the military prison, he was happily mar- 
ried to Miss America, daughter of William A. Walker, of Jefferson. They have six 
children living. He is a member in good standing of the Free Masons. 

pp (^ *V-^f»ornnP<30 ^'^^ ^°™ ^^^'^ ^°' ^^■^^' "^ Rockbridge County, Virginia; 
Ci.. V3^« Jxy rUUJl UfciK' i^j-ought up on the farm ; parents of Scotch-Irish descent, 
paternal ancestry coming from Scotland and settling in Pennsylvania in the early part 
of the eighteenth century, subsequently removing to the beautiful valley of Virginia, 
where for nearly a century they have occupied a prominent place. The war of 1861 
brought into the field four brothers, who enlisted in the beginning of the struggle, and 
after serving the " Lost Cause " four years, during which time three of them were severely 
■wounded, received an honorable discharge. At the age of fifteen the subject of this 
Bketch entered the army, in the artillery service, from which he received his discharge 
April 10, 1865, at Lynchburg, Virginia, following the surrender of General Lee's army 
on the day previous. 

E. G. Brownlee resumed his studies, interrupted by the war, first at old Midway 
Academy, then at the University of Virginia, and finally graduating with honor from 
Washington and Lee University, in 1874. Adopting teaching as his profession, he was, 
in September following, elected associate principal, and soon afterward principal of the 
Frankford High School, West Virginia, which school he raised to a high state of 
efficiency and popularity. During his connection with the above institution, September 
7, 1876, he married Miss Mary E., daughter of Joseph McCling, of Greenbrier County, 
West Virginia. The name of McCling is intimately associated with the history of 
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania, from the earliest days of the 
republic to the present time. 

In the fall of 1878, Mr. Brownlee was invited to take charge of the W'inchester 
(Kentucky) Male and Female High School, which position he held for three years, until 
elected president of Union Female College, at Eufaula, Alabama, in September, 1881. 
Under his administration the college grew and flourished as it had not done for ten 
years, almost doubling in patronage and influence. In the spring of 1886 he resigned 



Biographical. 5 2 ; 



his presidency of the college and invested all his means in the Magic City, in real estate, 
in which he has been eminently successful. Selecting a beautiful situation on the South 
Highlands he built there an attractive residence, and removed to it with his family, 
consisting of his wife, two daughters — Mary and Helen, and two sons — Edward and 
Louis. 

r^xJ O T? 1 r^ fel n lS(d ^ is a son of J. P. and E. J. Richards, and was born in 
ova. p.. fYmnelFOO y^zoo county, Mississippi, August 25, 18(3-5. His 
education was commenced in the common schools, and continued in the practical 
experiences of various business enterprises connected with newspaper work. He was 
the publisher of the first complete directory and census of Birmingham since 1880, and 
continued this work until 1886. In August, 1886, Mr. Richards entered the real estate 
brokerage business, and has achieved the success which he justly merits. He is at present 
the head of the firm of Richards & Brown, Mr. Richards is a young man who will 
push his way to success in any undertaking, and is worthy of the esteem granted him 
by his friends. 

He was united in marriage December 25, 1886, to Miss Gussie Anderson, of Wash- 
ington, Georgia. 

Rm Aaron ^® ^ descendant of an old and influential family of Jones Valley. 
« U • UhI»I( He was born at the homestead near Jonesboro, November 7, 1848, 
the son of Thomas H. and Melissa (Sadler) Owen. After passing through the com- 
mon schools and high schools of the neighborhood, he went to the University of the 
State at Tuscaloosa, and was there in the last months of the war period. While there 
the cadets, some three hundred strong, were ordered by the Governor to Mobile to assist 
in the defense of that port from a threatened attack. The attack was not then made. 
Young Owen had " snuffed the battle from afar," however, and on his return to the 
University obtained an honorable discharge in order to enter the regular army being 
then in his seventeenth year. While at home, making some hasty preparations to join 
a corps of mounted partisans in Northern Mississippi, the Federal General Wilson made 
his celebrated raid through Alabama, and among other acts of destructiveness burned 
farmer Thomas H. Owens' grain, buildings, etc., and carried off his plow animals. The 
early ending of the Confederacy defeated the martial purposes of the ex-cadet. 

He followed thereafter the life of a farmer and merchant, and married twice ; first. 
Miss Emma, daughter of Dr. Joseph R, Smith, of Elyton, and next, Miss Tallulah Nichol- 
son, of Leighton, Lawrence County. Mr. Owen is firmly established as a real estate 
broker and large real estate owner in Birmingham. By his last marriage he has four 
children living and one dead. He is a member of the Methodist Church. 

PKilH^m Pi fllIi^70^ was bom in South Carolina, near the town of Orange- 
UJlUlCirri U. aUVLl ijuj.g court House, July 24,1831. His father, W. K. 
Oliver, and mother, Caroline Spigner, were both natives of the same locality, and were 
both of Scotch descent. In 1835 his father's family emigrated from South Carolina 
and settled near Jlontgomery, Alabama, and lived there five years, when they moved 
to Coosa County, where his father farmed until his death, in July, 1861. His mother 
died in 1841. 

It was here that William spent the years of his youth. He finished his education 
at the high school of Summerfield in 1852, and returned home and farmed successfully 
until the breaking out of the war. He then entered as second lieutenant in Company C, 
Thirty-fourth Alabama Regiment, commanded by Colonel J. B. C. Mitchell. He was la 



524 Jefferson County. 



Ihirty-seven pitched battles, was wounded twice, the last time August 22, 1864, at Jones- 
boro, Georgia ; was disabled by it from further active service, and was placed on post 
duty throughout the remainder of the struggle. After the battle of Chickamauga, he 
was promoted to captain. 

He farmed at his old home a short time after the war. He moved to Wetumpka, 
and kept liverj' stables there until 1871, when he came to Birmingham. He has followed 
various callings since, and among other things was marshal under the Powell Admin- 
istration, from 1873 to 187.5, and again under the Lane Administration during the first 
two years of its history. Since then he has been a most successful dealer in real estate. 

Captain Oliver was married on October 23, 1855, to Miss Susan C, daughter of J. D. 
Ijykes, of Coosa County. 

Mr. Oliver has three children — Anna L., William G., Jr., and Susan C. 

All his family are Methodists. Captain Oliver is rightly placed among the worthy, 
■energetic, and progressive citizens of Birmingham. 

0„J*_^ VS ^■6^-w->A^.~ a native of Alabama, was born November 18th, 
^ei:er -\. ©JfiomAor^, is^ in Tuscaloosa bounty, Alabama, and is a 
son of James A. and Nancy R. Pruitt Thomson — the former a native of South Carolina, 
and the latter of Alabama. Peter K. Thomson lived on his father's farm and attended 
a private school until he was sixteen years old. 

At the opening of the war he enlisted, for three years or during the war, in the Elev- 
enth Alabama Regiment, and served four years. He participated in all the engagements 
«f his regiment, and was promoted to orderly sergeant. At the battle of the Crater, in 
front of Petersburg, July 30, 1864, he was severely wounded, and sent to the hospital at 
Richmond. In sixty days he recovered sufficiently to return to his command, but being 
unfit for hard service was put on the disabled list, and remained on light duty in the 
£eld until the surrender. 

After the war he returned to his home in Tuscaloosa County, and engaged in farm- 
ing, with the exception of a term of three years spent in the warehouse business at 
North Port, Alabama. In 1883 he moved to Birmingham and established himself in the 
real estate business, as a member of the prosperous firm of Hodges, Beason & Co. 

On November 30th, 1865, Mr. Thomson was married to Miss Cynthia E. "Walker, 
daughter of Moses P. and Elizabeth Terrell Walker, both natives of Alabama. 

The subject and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, and take an active 
interest in Sunday school work. 

i\Ir. Thomson is now one of the firm of Thomson, Smith & Cheatham, real estate 
dealers. 



^ofin U. ©Jerry, ^r., 



was born at Carrollton, Alabama, in June, 1862, 
and is a son of John T. and Elizabeth Kerr Terry. 
He was educated in the schools of Birmingham, and entered the hardware store of 
E. H. Roberts as clerk in 1875, and remained five years. Subsequently he worked in the 
same business for A. S. Elliott and F. P. O'Brien, and later was employed as chief book- 
keeper for Moore, Moore & Handley, and then for Milner & Kettig. 

In 1886 he forrLed a partnership with his brother, R. J. Terry, in the real estate 
business, the firm being R. J. Terry & Bro. 

Mr. Terry was married on December 15, 1886, to Miss Laura L. Richards, of Bir- 
mingham. 



Biograp/iicaL 525 

Tianipl Rnmlpit TtI was born in Franklin County, Florida, April 30, 1844. 
JJdLliei r\UUJitltt, Jl., j^jg f.^iig,.^ Daniel Rowlett, came from Virginia, and 
settled in Florida in ISoo. His mother was a native of that State, and is still living in 
Apalachicola, and is now eighty years old. 

It is a remarkable fact, taken in connection with Jlr. Rowlett's success in life, that 
he went to school only three months. He began clerking at fourteen, and has ever 
since been in active business. He lived in his native town until 1861, and then joined 
Dunham's Artillery, in the Confederate Army, and was in the war from the beginning 
to the end. 

He had sixty days' rations allowed him when he came out of the war, and with this 
made his start. He converted it into cash and began the mercantile business on a small 
scale. 

In 1869 he left Florida and came to Eufaula, Alabama, and was in the same business 
there until September 26, 1880, when he came to Birmingham, and has since been 
engaged in the restaurant, auction and commission business, and is now sucessfully 
•engaged in the insurance and real estate business. 

Mr. Rowlett was married in April, 1875, to Miss Mary Colby, of Eufaula, Alabama. 
He has one child — John Colby. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rowlett are members of St. Paul's Catholic Church. 

"LP P T Cc\r^y^o?nr^A one of the young and thriving real estate operators, 
■enai ^. V^Opeial^CJj ^-as bom in I862, in Morgan County, Alabama, and 
is a son of Rev. A. G. and Minnie Johnson Copeland. His father has, for many years, 
been a preacher in the North Alabama M. E. Conference. 

Educated in the schools of Danville, and the high school of Oak Grove, Jefi'erson 
County, he entered in 1881 into a business alliance with his brother, D. R. Copeland, and 
W. B. Craig, of Birmingham, under the firm name of Copeland, Craig & Co., and for two 
years was connected with them in general merchandise. 

In the spring of 1883 he became a traveling salesman for the well-known firm of 
E. L. Higdon & Co., with whom he was identified until the first of the year 1886. Real 
estate at this time was commanding the attention of the country, and our subject entered 
the business, forming a copartnership with Isaac Henry, under the firm name of Cope- 
land & Henry. They have been very successful, and have established quite a lucrative 
business. 



J. f. Wilson, 



of the firm of Wilson, Sage & Clark, extensive real estate, 
money, bond, and stock brokers of Birmingham, and of Wil- 
son, Sage & Baker, of Mobile. This is one of the very oldest and best known concerns 
of Mobile, and, though but a short time in Birmingham, among the first in business 
standing, and differs in one respect to nearly, if not to all, other real estate dealers in 
this city, to-wit : their transactions are in no wise speculative, but confined strictly to 
commission. 

H. F. Wilson, George E. Sage, William L. Baker, and Louis V. Clark compose the 
two firms, and the name of either is sufficient guarantee of the confidence that may be, 
and is, imposed in both. 

Mr. Wilson was born in Alabama in 1837, and his foreparents were of Scotch 
■origin. He was educated in the schools of this State, and when twenty years of age 
engaged in the business in Mobile with which he has since been identified. He came 
to this city and began business in December, 1886, and the interested public may be 
fully assured that the agency is of no ephemeral character. 



526 Jefferson County. 



Mr. Wilson was one of the incorporators of the Highland Lake Land Company ; 
one of the organizers of the Alabama State Stock Exchange ; a member of the Mobile 
Chamber of Commerce, and one of the charter members of the Mobile Cotton 
Exchange. 

At the very outbreak of the war he enlisted as a private soldier in Company A 
(Mobile Rifles), Third Alabama Regiment ; was mustered in at Lynchburg and mus- 
tered out at Appomattox ; was always on duty or " accounted " for, and never received 
a wound nor spent an hour as prisoner. 

At the close of the war he resumed his place in business, and has pursued it — how 
faithfully may be inferred from this sketch. 

In 186.5 he married Miss M. V. Clarke, a native of Alabama, a highly accomplished 
and estimable lady, the mother of four living children and two that are dead, and now- 
principal of the Home and Day School of the city of Mobile. 

Vl/ B ('ill/T\^r of the firm of Gilmer & Rencher, is a native of Lowndes County, 
^ ' Alabama, born in June, 1847, and is a son of John T. and S. J. 

(Barnett) Gilmer, natives of Georgia and Alabama respectively. His father is a planter, 
and has been a resident of Alabama since his early youth. 

The subject of this biography was educated in Alabama, and while a student at the 
University was ordered to join the Confederate forces, and July 19, 1864, about forty- 
eight hours after leaving school, was wounded in a skirmish with General Rousseau's 
raiders and permanently lamed. For several years subsequent to the war he was 
engaged in planting, and was also a teacher for about five years. 

In 1883, in company with W. W. Drane, he engaged in the real estate and insurance 
business at Fort Deposit, which business he is still interested in, and managed by his 
partner. 

In January, 1887, Mr. Gilmer came to Birmingham, and, in association with C. B. 
Rencher, is introducing the celebrated prairie "black lands" of Lowndes County, the 
object being to induce white settlers to immigrate there. 

The firm of Drane & Gilmer publish a pamphlet which describes the remarkable 
richness of the lands of that county, and the many advantages of location, etc. 

Mr. Gilmer was married in 1881 to Miss Rosa L. Carr, also a native of Alabama, 
and daughter of Dr. G. W. L. Carr, and has three children. 

Mr. Gilmer is a truly progressive citizen, and is the tax assessor of Lowndes 
County, which office he has held for the past six years. 

GR RoFlfrhor °^ *^® ^'^^ °^ Gilmer & Rencher, is a native of Lowndes 
. D. f\Lr(Lr[cI J County, Alabama, and was born September 22, 18.50, and 
was the second son born to James H. and Mary A. (McCall) Rencher, who were natives 
of North Carolina and Alabama respectively. They reared four sons and one daughter. 
The mother died in 1871 and the father in 1879. 

Educated in the county schools and the East Alabama Male College, now the Agri- 
cultural and IMechanical College, our subject was for a number of years a teacher in 
various counties in the State, and also in South Florida. While in the latter country 
he joined an engineering corps and assisted in surveying the Lake E. & St. John's 
Railroad. 

He returned to Montgomery Count)' in 1879, and for a period of five years was a 
teacher in Pintlala Academy. He was a member of the National Educational A.ssocia- 
tion, which met at Madison, Wisconsin, and was editor for a short time of the Hayne- 
ville Times, during 1886. He was a teacher in the public schools up to the summer of 



Edward W, Walker 



Biographical. 527 



1886, and in December came to Birmingham and engaged in the real estate business 
with Mr. Gilmer, as will be seen above. 

Professor Rencher is a cultivated gentleman, and a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. 

is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was born 
in 1850. His father. Colonel J. H. Walker, was a Con- 
federate officer, and is now deceased. His mother, now a resident of Atlanta, was a 
daughter of Hon. John F. Morris, of New Hampshire, and her brother, Professor John 
L. Morris, is president of the University of Tennessee. 

Edward W. was educated in New Hampshire, and began his business career at 
Lynn, Massachusetts, which was continued in New York City and Chicago. 

In June, 1884, he came to Atlanta, and was a commercial traveler for a New 
York wire house for nearly two years, his route embracing the Southern States. 

In April, 1886, he came to Birmingham, and became the manager of the Cotton 
and Produce Exchange. This business he successfully conducted, together with the 
auction of local stocks, until January ,^1887, when he formed a partnership, under the 
firm name of Walker & Hodgson, and embarked in the real estate business. This 
association was soon dissolved, and he formed the present firm of E. W. Walker & Co., 
and is doing a fine business in city and suburban property, and also deals largely 
in mineral and timber lands, with office in the Cotton Exchange. Mr. Walker has 
the exclusive sale of the property embraced in Phelan's Addition, on the South 
Highlands. 

Mr. AValker was a Confederate soldier, serving about eighteen months, most of 
the time in the Second Tennessee Cavalry. He had an exciting experience in his 
short service, being wounded severely in the face while carrying dispatches, and was 
once taken prisoner at Knoxville. 

"lA r\ n\ I of the firm of H. 0. Clarke & Co., extensive dealers in all sorts 

n. \J . OlslKt^e, q£ j.g^j ggtate, and especially in mineral lands; and secretary 
and treasurer of the Missouri and Onyx Mineral Company, is a native of Midway, 
Woodford County, Kentucky. His father, the late Dr. H. 0. Clarke, died in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, where he was residing in 1852 ; and his mother, who, before marriage, was a Miss 
Shay, died in Louisiana in 1872. Both the Clarkes and Shays are of the oldest and best 
families of the " Bluegrass Region" of Kentucky. 

After the death of Dr. Clarke, Mrs. Clarke, with her servant and her only child, 
the subject of this sketch, who was born in 1850 removed to Louisiana, where she spent 
the rest of her life. 

Young Clarke was educated at the Military Institute, Lexington, Kentucky. He 
left the South in 1873, and at Cincinnati, Ohio, was for the following six or seven years 
in the employ of the Adams Express Company. From here he went to St. Louis, where 
he became interested in mining, and subsequently cashier of the Iron Mountain Express 
Company, going thence to IMemphis in the emi^loy of the Southern Express Company, 
from whence he came to Birmingham, November, 1886, and engaged in his present suc- 
cessful enterprise. He was married at St. Louis, in 1878, to Miss Lydia Scanlan. 

T P TflVlP '^ ^ native of Montgomery, where he was born in 1859. His father, P. 
Ui 1 1 UUJlu jj g Qayie, is a business man of Montgomery, where he has been 
engaged for several years in the warehouse and commission business. 

jyir. Gayle was educated in the city schools of ^Montgomery, and was engaged in 
business with his father for a period of ten years. 



528 Jefferson County. 



He became a resident of Birmingham in March, 1886, and engaged in the real estate 
business. He was the head of the firm of Gayle & Ware until March, 1887, since which 
time he has prosecuted his business alone, and is prospering finely. Mr. Gayle is an 
energetic and enterprising dealer, and has, at all times, choice property on his list. 

U nn C'voov, is a native of Danville, Virginia, where he was born August 31, 1855. 
In • 1 1 uitJolL jjg ig ^ grandson of Dr. Nathaniel T. and son of Dr. Wm. S. Green, 
who were botli prominent physicians of Danville. 

The father of our subject died in 1866, and as he was the oldest child the care and 
support of his mother and two brothers devolved upon bis young shoulders. 

Leaving school at the age of thirteen he began to earn a livelihood in the tobacco 
business, and subsequently obtained a situation in the Planters' National Bank of Dan- 
ville, where he became familiar with commercial business, and learned book-keeping. 
He continued at the latter employment — being connected with two firms — from 1877 
until 1884, when he came to Birmingham ; became connected with the Age, and con- 
tinued with that paper two years. During this period Mr. Green established a large 
acquaintance, and through his efforts increased largely th" circulation of the paper. 

He also published, in 1886, "Birmingham Illustrated," a handsome pamphlet 
■descriptive of Birmingham and vicinity, which had a wide circulation, and presented the 
mineral interests and resources of this region in a thorough manner. 

Mr. Green is now a member of the firm of J. H. Douglass & Co., real estate dealers, 
who are largely interested in mineral lands, in which they have been fortunate and found 
profitable. 

Mr. Green was married in 1880, to Miss Minnie H. Post, of Springfield, Illinois. 
Two chilren have been born to them — Herbert P. and Natalie. He is a Mason, in which 
order he was Past Master at the age of twenty-three. 

(T) (I H/I/IqOFI °^ *^^ ^^^^ °^ Hudson & Perryman, real estate, stock and bond 
Jli. U. nUUDUri, brokers, of this city, and of Hudson & Co., Mobile, is secretary 
and treasurer of the Central Land and Improvement Company, and director in the 
Highland Lake Land Company. 

Colonel Hudson's parents were native Virginians and traced their ancestry back to 
•the oldest established families. They removed to Missouri some years ago, and there 
ended their days. 

Our subject came to this State in 1855, stopped a few months at Uniontown, and 
landed in Mobile the year following. Up to the outbreak of the war he was an 
accountant. In 1861 he entered the Confederate Army as a private in Company G, 
Twenty-fourth Alabama, and served to the close of the war. Being in the latter days of 
his services attached to President Davis' party, he was captured two days before that 
■distinguished gentleman surrendered, and placed in solitary confinement at Fort Dela- 
ware. At the battle of Shiloh he was promoted for gallantry to second lieutenant, and 
up to 1863 served on General Withers' staff. The remainder of his service was as aide- 
de-camp to General Wheeler, ranking, though not commissioned, as lieutenant colonel. 
He participated in all the engagements of his command, and was wounded in front of 
Adairsville. 

Returning to Mobile Colonel Hudson was in the cotton business up to 1874, when 
he became cashier of the Southern Bank of Alabama, a position he filled until the expi- 
ration of the bank's charter in 1880. His brokerage business was organized that year as 
W. G. Garnett & Co., changing to Hudson & Co. in 1883. 



Biographical. 529. 



He came to Birmingham in November, 1886, and at once embarked in his present 
enterprise. 

He was born in Madison County, Virginia, March 25, 1834, and there received his 
education. He has been twice married, first to a Miss Woodfin, at Uniontown, in 1860, 
and second to a Miss Bondurant, of Mobile, in August, 1885. 

Ponwiir-rt/ii-. 5i® Oo/-iiA-R/^i.i-, real estate, stock and bond brolcers. This 
errijman ^ ieJear^Orr^, fi^m, like many another in this now famous 
city, is composed of two young men, Messrs. K. E. Ferryman and A. R. Dearborn, the 
former a native of Mobile, and the latter of New York City, though reared in Rich- 
mond, Virginia. They both enjoy the advantage of a splendid education, and are fully 
endowed for the duties of a life now but fairly inaugurated. 

Mr. Ferryman came to Birmingham in December, 1886, and up to February of this 
year, when the present business arrangement was effected, was a clerk for Ferry- 
man & Hudson. Mr. Dearborn, for a while after coming here, was in business with Mr, 
Hoyt, as Hoyt & Dearborn. 

The firm of Ferryman & Dearborn is justly regarded as one of the most substantial 
in the city, and having come here to stay may be safely entrusted with the liighest 
responsibilities. 



/4amC<=^ .0^ ^hrpiTP '^°"''^ ^""^ Montgomery, wb 
Q>CHU<,::d "w^A- -l/\i-a,l C December 7, 1853. His fath 



fhere he was born 
father was James A^ 
AVare, now deceased, and his mother was a daughter of the late Judge Stokes, of Geor- 
gia. He was educated at Baltimore, Maryland, and the University of Virginia. For ten 
years after leaving college he was employed as a bookkeeper for a large cotton house of 
his native city, directly from which he came to Birmingham — engaging in the real estate 
business in July, 1886, in partnership with Mr. J. F. Gayle. In March, 1S77, the partner- 
ship was dissolved, and Mr. Ware has since been alone in business. He is known as 
one of the fortunate speculators of the Magic City, where he owns valuable property. 
He is also largely interested in real estate in Montgomery County, where his father was. 
an extensive planter. Mrs. James A. Ware is a daughter of the late Colonel Tom 
Brown, who was killed in battle during the late war. 



530 Jefferson County. 



/Ir(;t7ite(;t5, (5o9tra(;tor5, Cu/T)b(^r Deal(?rs. 



^~\ "3 ©*7^oP Architect, has done much for architectural improve- 

CfSlOUarSL ^leieij ment in Bu-mingham. Coming to the city, only after it 
had reached the stage of perfect confidence in its future power and importance, he 
proved himself capable of gratifying the common ambition among builders — to cultivate 
a more correct and elaborate taste in all the more popular and costly kinds of structures. 

He is a native of Paris, France, and the son of a stone contractor. The paternal 
grandfather was a Dane, who had also long been an important stone contractor in Paris. 

After passing through the ordinary schools of his native city, and becoming well- 
grounded in the studies there taught, young Sidel, in his nineteenth year, entered the 
celebrated Paris School of Art, where he applied himself diligently for five years. He 
is a member of the Sockie d' Architectes de la ville de Paris. 

Mr. Sidel's standing in his profession in Paris may be indicated by his appointment 
by the government to travel, for fourteen months, in the interest of the Uterature of art. 
He reported, while thus engaged, twice monthly to the minister of education. He has 
contributed some valuable papers to the French journals on American architecture. 
Relieved of duty in the capacity of correspondent he visited London, where he was 
employed as assistant to Mr. Spiers, architect, and member of the Royal Academy. 
Thus engaged he made the acquaintance of some American architects, and was by 
them prevailed upon to cast his lot in their country. Arriving in :New York February, 
1883, at the time of preparation for holding the World's Fair and Cotton Centennial at 
New Orleans, he was promptly employed to assist in the architectural designs of that 
greatest of all structures of its kind ever conceived. The management awarded him 
a gold medal as a testimonial of this, his first expert work in America. The work in 
New Orleans finished, Mr. Sidel went to Panama to investigate the great canal, but bad 
health compelled him to abandon any hope of residing in that climate. It had been 
his purpose to return to New York from New Orleans, but reports of the wonderful 
growth of Birmingham arrested his attention, and hither he came. His first step was 
to report to Dr. H. M. Caldwell, president of the Elyton Land Company. This gentle- 
man, being also president of the Caldwell Hotel Company, invited Mr. Sidel to com- 
pete for furnishing a plan for the handsome six -story hotel at the corner of First Ave- 
nue and Twenty-second Street. He consented to enter the competition. His plans 
were handed in April 15, and nine days later he was notified that the directors had 
accepted them. He is now in charge of the erection of the first great hotel ever built 
in Birmingham. He is also building, after plans furnished by himself, a magnificent 
business house for Mr. Josiah Morris, on First Avenue, corner of Nineteenth Street, 
five stories high, 100 feet front by 182J feet deep. This will be second to no business 
house in the whole South in architectural finish and completeness of design. Mr. 
Sidel's reputation is firmly fixed on his merits as an architect, and he will, doubtless, 
long continue to command the best patronage Birmingham has to bestow. 

He was married in New Orleans in September, 1886, to Miss Jeanne Legras, daugh- 
ter of a sculptor of that city. He is a member of the Society of American Architects, 
and is also a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons. 



Biogi-aph ical. 531 



Sutcliffe, Armstrong & Willett, 'l^^^Tln sl^f^'kTrMan- 

Chester, England ; A. J. Armstrong, late of Boston, Massachusetts, and William H. 
Willett, late of Cheltenham, England, are ranked to-day among the very leaders of 
their profession in this State, and number among their numerous clientage some of the 
most extensive capitalists, contractors and builders in Northern Alabama. 

Though all young men they come among the enterprising people of Birmingham 
already distinguished in their respective accomplishments, both in this country and 
Europe. 

MR. SUTCLIFFE was born in 1853, educated at the Manchester, England, Grammar 
Schools, augmented by subsequent training at other institutions of learning, and studied 
architecture under his father. For four years preceding his coming to the United 
States, which occurred in 1886, he was in the employ of the British Government in his 
professional capacity, and, as did Mr. Willett, also held a certificate as science and 
art master under Her Majesty's Government. He brings with him to America, as evi- 
dences of the high order of his attainments in various branches, the gold medal award 
in architectural and building constructions ; a bronze medal in descriptive geometry, 
and diplomas in drawing, chemistry, acoustics, light and heat, magnetism and electric- 
ity, theoretical mechanics, geology, and physiology. In addition to these be has 
received not less than ten art certificates from South Kensington and the Society of 
Arts ; is a member of the Phonetic Society of England, and many literary clubs of high 
order. 

He came to Birmingham in December, 1886, and in January following, engaged in 
his present successful enterprise. The entire firm are members of the Alabama State 
Association of Architects, while Mr. Sutcliffe is its secretary, and Mr. Armstrong is of 
the executive committee. 

MR. WILLETT came to America largely under the influence of the "Birmingham 
boom," of which he read in the Birmingham (England) Post. He is an accomplished 
architect, ripe with learning and professional experience of a high order. Like Mr. 
Sutcliffe, who, by the way, brought his family, he has come to stay, and will adorn 
American citizenship. 

MR. ARMSTRONG is an experienced civil engineer, though now devoting his time 
to this firm, with which he acts in the capacity of business manager. 

•fsfPTTPl] "Jj^llpn a leading contractor and builder, is essentially a .self-made man, 
jiT y J**- ^ ' and has an eventful and interesting history. Born in London, 

England, June, 1840, he was thrown on his own resources when only eight years old 
and never attended school a day in his life. He became an apprentice to learn the 
brick-mason's trade, continuing at it for four years, a portion of which time he was 
only allowed six cents a day, with board and clothing. When twelve years of age he 
was well grown, and joined the English Navy, although the lawful age was fourteen. 
After eight months' service he was declared able to go to sea, and was sent with the 
squadron, in regular service, to join the forces in China. He participated in the war 
with China, and also saw some service in the East Indies. 

The following eventful period of his life is thus described : After leaving the British 

Navy he went to Ning Poo, about one hundred and twenty miles south of Shanghai, 

and was given command of the lugger Dolphin, one hundred and forty tons, and one of 

the fastest sailing vessels. He had often passed steamers that were going at full speed. 

■ The Dolpliin carried general cargoes from Ning Poo to Shanghai, and was manned by a 

hinese crew, with European mate, second mate, and gunner, carrying four guns. He 



532 Jefferson County. 



had them all well drilled, and might truthfully say that he settled fully one hundred 
pirate vessels. At one time the Dolphin was chartered by the British Consul at Ning 
Poo. He was placed in command, with one lieutenant and gunner and fifty sailors and 
marines, with a roving commission and instructions to search for pirate vessels and to 
destroy them. He destroye<l some eleven vessels, two of which, manned together 
twenty-six guns, were sunk at sea. He had many times been reported taken by the 
pirates and murdered, and at one time, when in the silk and tea carrying trade, the 
Dolphin being away from Ning Poo for six months, it was reported that he had been, 
captured and nailed hand and foot to the deck. 

Another hard fight with two pirates, one on each side of his vessel, occurred one 
Sunday morning, lasting four and one half hours, and ending in his sinking one and 
driving the other ashore. In the fight he had his mate, gunner, and five of his crew 
wounded. After this trip he gave up sailing and joined General Gordon. 

Subsequently he was appointed an ensign in the Chinese Imperial Army by the 
celebrated General (Chinese) Gordon, then in command. After two battles he was- 
appointed lieutenant for meritorious conduct, and after passing through seven battles 
was promoted, and served as captain of Company I, Third Regiment, until the disband- 
ing of the forces. 

After a few years of contracting and building he was induced to come to America 
by his uncle, Richard Manard, who wished him to engage in his business of contracting 
and building in Western New York. Accordingly, in 187.3, he came to the United 
States, where he has since been a resident and citizen. 

Mr. Allen was ofTered, after four months' residence in Milwaukee, the position of 
inspector of sewers by the city board of public works, which body subsequently pro- 
moted him to the position of superintendent of the public works of the city, which he 
ably prosecuted for four years, and was then appointed to superintend the construction 
of the extensive shops of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. In 1879 he was appointed 
superintendent of the construction of the sewers of Memphis, Tennessee, after which 
he went to New Orleans, where, in pursuit of his trade, he erected some of the most 
important buildings of that city. He was recommended and endorsed by ex-Mayor 
Shakespeare and William Ferret, architect, of New Orleans, that Birmingham presented 
a good field for his many years of practical experience, and in February, 1886, he 
became a resident of the Magic City. That the advice was good is well attested by the 
fact that Mr. Allen has now contracted for more work than can be executed by him in 
one year, although employing from one hundred to two hundred and fifty hands. Hia 
first work was the erection of the beautiful Jewish Synagogue, and the most important 
one is the contract to build the Caldwell Hotel, which will be the handsomest and finest 
appointed of its kind in the South. To give some idea of the vast amount of material 
necessary to erect such a structure, we note the fact that the foundation alone required 
one half million brick, and the superstructure two millions. This is said to be the best 
and most substantial foundation south of Mason and Dixon's line. Mr. Allen has also 
the honor to be the contractor to build the first office building in the city heated by 
steam, and with elevators and other modern improvements. This is the Caldwell and 
Milner building, now being erected on First Avenue. It will be the most substantial 
and imposing in the city. 

Mr. Allen is one of the most energetic of men and with progressive ideas. He is 
the first to adopt the modern improvements in building, using elevators for bricks, 
mortar, etc., by means of which he can accomplish threefold more work than by the 
old methods. 



Biographical. 533 



It will be seen that Mr. Allen is in the prime of useful, busy life, and will be an 
important factor in the building up of the city. He is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, and of the Northwestern Masonic Aid Society, of Chicago, one of the oldest of 
its kind in the country. 

Mr. Allen was married in October, 1869, to Miss Ellen Baker, also a native of Eng- 
land. Her father was a prominent master builder of England. They are both Episco- 
palians. 

THVc»r1orir>l7- (^ Ql-ioTvi-vo v^l Architect, Builder and Contr.^ctor, was 
rrCQcllCk \J. OllcppalCl, born in England, February 8, 1848, and is a 
son of Thomas H. and Louisa (Umphry) Sheppard. His father was an extensive 
builder and contractor in Bristol, England, and from him our subject inherited the 
traits of character which have made him successful in life. Our subject came with 
his parents to America in 1855, and located in Michigan. When only fifteen years of 
age he entered as a private in Company A, First Michigan Cavalry, which formed a part 
of General Custer's Brigade. He participated in all the engagements of this regiment, 
being wounded at Winchester, Virginia, and subsequently being taken prisoner in Vir- 
ginia. After the war he learned the carpenter trade, and was engaged in contracting 
and building in different towns in Michigan. He is at present one of the largest con- 
tractors and builders of Birmingham, and employs from fifty to one hundred men. In 
the year 1886 he erected over fifty buildings, and in the season of 1887 he will more 
than double that number. Mr. Sheppard has also made a close study of architecture, 
and in this field has also scored a success. He is also engaged in the wholesale lumber 
business. He was married December 28, 1869, to Flora E. McGill, of Michigan. They 
have three children — -Lena F., Fred J., and Bruce E. Mr. Sheppard is a member of G. 
A. R. Post No. 49, Birmingham. 

\A7illi'ain U Uinninc Contractor and Builder, was born in Indiana,. 
W lllldirl n . n ly y U|b, March, 1S56, and is a son of Thomas Higgins, who 
came from Ireland to the United States early in life, and has followed the occupation of 
a railroad contractor and builder. 

AV'illiam is a graduate of the high schools of Indianapolis, and after leaving 
school served four years in learning the trade of a brick and stone mason. After 
thoroughly mastering that trade he engaged in business for himself, and in the fall 
of 1885 came to Birmingham, where he has been actively prosecuting his business, 
and has erected some of the most substantial buildings fn the city. INIr. Higgins 
has a large number of contracts for the coming year, and will employ a large 
number of assistants. 

He was married December, 1886, to Miss Emma Pitts, of Nashville, Tennessee. 
Mr. Higgins is a member of the Knights of Labor, and a Catholic. 



^ame<J. '&. Mar^aff IJ.^ ""i/'; 



1845, in Sumter County,, 
a son of Matthew A. and 
Elizabeth W. Brooks IMarshall, natives of Georgia, who afterward emigrated to- 
Alabama. 

James B. remained on the farm until he was sixteen years old, and then left 
home to enlist in Company B, of the Fifty-sixth Alabama Cavalry, under command 
of Colonel William Boyle, of Mobile. He went through the entire struggle and sur- 
rendered with his command at Washington, Georgia, in May, 1865. He then came 
back home and engaged in fiirming at the old homestead, and remained there until 1872, 
29 



534 Jefferson County. 



and then engaged in contracting and building, also merchandising in connection 
with farming, at Mount Sterling, Choctaw County, Alabama, and remained there 
until 1881. He then moved to Birmingham and engaged in contracting and build- 
ing, and also dealing in lumber in connection with this business. His success, like 
many other young men in this progressive town, has been gratifying in the highest 
sense, and it is altogether excusable that he should indulge a feeling of satisfaction 
•over his gratifying experience. He was reared in the lap of wealth, his father own- 
ing eight thousand acres of land in the famous black belt of the State, and two hundred 
negroes. Unlike many others under similar reverses of fortune, he did not pine over 
•what was, but turned about and lived in the present and future, and with the happy 
result already mentioned. One great boon permitted him was the enjoyment of 
good educational advantages in his early life. 

Mr. Marshall was married in February, 1866, to Miss Carrie, daughter of Cap- 
tain Windsor and Caroline Mitchell Spinks, of Mount Sterling, Alabama. There have 
been five children born to this union — Benjamin B., Daisy E., Julian (deceased), 
Joseph (deceased), and James (deceased). Mr. Marshall is a member of the Knights of 
Pythias, and Mrs. Marshall of the Baptist Church. 

JTIhoffiac Toff or A P^"™'^yoi' °^ Birmingham, was born at Macon, Georgia, 
1 r(t)rr[db dL| | Ll y, in Juiy_ isss. nis parents, John E. and Eliza Rombert 
Jeflfers, were natives of the same State, and the father was clerk of Bibb County, Georgia 
fifteen years, previous to which he had been engaged in the mercantile business in 
that county. The subject of this sketch attended school at Macon until he was four- 
teen years old. After securing a good common school education he apprenticed him- 
self to the Wilmington Machine Company, at Wilmington, North Carolina, to learn 
the trade. After serving an apprenticeship of six years the apt young workman secured 
his papers as a skilled machinist and engineer, and was offered a position as 
engineer on the AVilmington & Manchester Railroad, which he accepted and 
held until 1860, when he closed the throttle and jumped from his engine to 
gra.sp the musket. He enlisted as a private in the Tenth North Carolina Light 
Artillery, with which regiment he served until 1863, when he was put on detached 
service as engineer on the Wilmington & Waldon Railroad, for the transportation of 
troops. During and after the war he traveled extensively by rail and water, filling 
■during the same time various positions of responsibility and trust under the Govern- 
ment. In 1871 he was appointed master mechanic of the South & North Alabama Rail- 
road Shops, and shortly afterward placed in charge of the railroad shops at Birming- 
ham, as master mechanic, which position he filled with marked ability for several years. 
In 1878 he formed a copartnership with Jackson & Morris, in the saw-mill and lumber 
business, and in this, as all other ventures in which he embarked, Mr. Jeffers proved a 
success. He was elected mayor of Birmingham in 1878, and his administration gave 
such satisfaction that he was re-elected in 1880. He had served the city several terms 
as a member of the board of aldermen, and the knowledge he gained of the city's 
affairs while on the board eminently fitted him for the duties and responsibilities of 
the city's chief magistrate. He was a conscientious and progressive official. He 
inaugurated the sewerage system of Birmingham, and was one of the incorporators of 
the First Avenue Street Railway Company, which he organized. He also organized 
the Birmingham Gas Company, and has for several years been superintendent of this 
company and the Electric Light Company. 

Mr. Jeffers is one of Birmingham's most enterprising citizens ; a man of broad, 
progressive ideas and liberal views. His name will ever remain closely identified with 



Biographical. 535 



the enterprises upon wliich Birmingham's substantial prosperity was first based. 
While in active public life he was the prime mover in every step taken in improving 
and developing the place. He is a thoroughly-trained business man, and a successful 
manipulator of political machinery ; is connected with a number of secret and protec- 
tive associations, among them the F. & A. M. and the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
Engineers, in all of which he has been complimented with official honors. The 
estimable woman he led to the altar in 1867 still lives to crown with happiness the 
meridian of his manhood and bless their two children. 

C^ TTn Cv\\ DC? ^'^^ \tQT:'n in Pickens County, Alabama, July 11, 1844, and is a 
• ^' J-lU-£,iiDO gon of James J. and Nancy Hughes. Mr. Hughes attended 
the county schools until the age of fifteen, and in the spring of 1801 enlisted in Com- 
pany D, Second Alabama Regiment of Infantry, under Colonel Hardee, who was after- 
ward General. Mr. Hughes was wounded and taken prisoner at the siege of Vicksburg, 
and his hearing was permanently impaired by the wound. He was soon paroled, but 
was wounded again at the battle of New Hope Church, where he was shot three times. 
He was sent to the hospital at Griffin, Georgia, where he remained one week, and was 
then sent to his home. His wounds having disabled him he did not again enter the 
army. He belonged to the sharpshooters, under General Price, and was in ninety-five 
engagements in one year's time under him. 

After the war he engaged in farming in Mar.shall County, Mississippi, which he fol- 
lowed for eight years. He sold out and moved to this county in 1873, and farmijd one 
year, since which time he has been engaged in contracting and building, and in the 
lumber business, and in 1884 added to his business a planing mill. 

In December, 1885, he formed a partnership with F. K. Simmons, of Florida, and 
has added to his business a carpenter shop and stair-building, employing thirty men. 

Mr. Hughes was married in October, 1867, to Miss Kate Means, of Holly Springs, 
Mississippi, and eight children have been born to them. 

Himself and family are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is also a mem- 
ber of the American Legion of Honor. 

'^>»A«».,-R C^ Tr\^ J-R^-P-P^-A is a natiye of Georgia, where he was born 

Andrew and Sarah Ledbetter, nee Brown. Before he had reached manhood, Joseph A., 
by the death of his father, was placed in a responsible position toward the family sup- 
port, and he worked upon the farm until twenty years of age. Hard work fell to his 
lot, but his natural energy and hopefulness enabled him to push along the rugge<i paths 
of duty, and finally to overcome the many impediments to his career. His mother and 
four sisters are living in Montgomery. 

In 187-5 Mr. Ledbetter had moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and was in limited 
partnership with Captain C. B. Ferrell, in the coal business. He had a good jiair of 
mules and wagons of his own, and between the commissions he made on sales, and the 
work of delivery done by himself and team, he made money. Later, he began in JNIont- 
gomery the lumber business, on commission. From that department he entered into 
buying and selhng lumber on his own account. In 1881 he began the lumber business 
in Birmingham, and has done well. 

December, 1882, Mr. Ledbetter married Miss Mary Fleming, of Montgomery. They 
have two children. Both parents are members of the Baptist Church. 

Mr. Ledbetter belongs to the Order of Free and Accepted Masons ; also the Knights 
of Honor and the Knights of Pythias. 



536 Jefferson County. 



O^vml/J M T-T,-! v-.!^ Manager of the extensive lumber business of J. M. 

Js;aN9iq 1 1. enaaeL, ^^^^ ^ ^^^ ^.^ ^^^^ .^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ ^^^^^^ 

County, Alabama, and is a son of James C. and Martha Smith Hand, who were natives 
of Georgia. He went with his father to Bell County Texas, at the age of twelve, where 
he remained until 1881, and then returned to Alabama. 

Our subject is a graduate of the Lexington (Ky.) Commercial College, and begaa 
his business career as a bookkeeper in Shelby County. 

On February 18, 1886, he came to Birmingham, and opened up the lumber business 
for his brother. He has been manager of the business ever since it was started, and has 
devoted his attention assiduously since, establishing an excellent reputation as a careful 
and conservative business man. Mr. Hand is a young man of fine qualifications, and 
ever energetic and faithful in the discharge of the trusts reposed in him. 

He is an earnest and active member of the Baptist Church, and his work in the 
Sunday school is much appreciated. 

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 



iDfnI'j-tj- 



T\ ir A "f^ k I was born in Jefl'erson County, Alabama, September 18,1851, 
>VIJfeO IiaDai^K^ and is a descendant of some of the oldest and best known 
families in the county. He was educated in the celebrated Dental College of Baltimore, 
Maryland, graduating from that institution in the class of 1874, and immediately began 
practice, locating in Birmingham, where he has since been actively engaged in his pro- 
fession. Dr. Eubank is the oldest practitioner in the city, and has seen Birmingham's 
magic growth from its earliest days. He attained high mark in his profession, and 
has served as a member of the Examining Board of Dentists, and also as vice-president 
of the State Dental A8s»«iation. 

Since 1882, he has been associated with his brother George, under the firm name of 
Eubank Bros. Their dental parlors are over the Berney National Bank, and are the 
finest appointed in the city. Dr. Eubank is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

In June, 1873, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E., daughter of James and 
Sarah Brown. Mrs. Brown was a descendant of the celebrated Rutledge family who 
emigrated to America during the early colonial period. Five children bless their union 
— Minnie B., Kate, Lucy, Emma, and an infant son. Dr. Eubank and family are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

C f^ I-' k I '® another of those who can claim a life-long residence in 

Ueorge -l-^UBa^K, Jeff-erson County. He was born August 17, 1861, near Bir- 
mingham, and in his short life has witnessed as complete a change as ever fell to the 
lot of any young man. What was in his early days considered only a sterile and 
unpromising country is now the center of the highest activity and marvelous develop- 
ment. His aged father, who is still living, and whose name is William C. Eubank, is 
said to have been the first white man born in Jefl'erson County, and the year of his 
birth dates back to the year 181S. His mother, Eliza Hickman, is likewise a native 
of Jefferson County. 



Biographical. 537 



The. subject of whom we treat was reared in this county and received his education 
in its common schools, and continued his application to study until he arrived at hia 
seventeenth year. He then studied dentistry in his brother's, Dr. Alfred Eubank, office 
for two years, and in the fall of 1879 entered the dental department of Harvard Uni- 
versity at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied both medicine and denistry in this 
institution, from which he graduated in 1882, and in the same year formed a co-part- 
nership with his brother, whose name has already been mentioned. The success of 
this firm is one of the successes of Birmingham. 

In the year 1885. Dr. Eubank was vice-president of the Dental Association of Ala- 
bama and Tennessee, and is now president of the Birmingham Rod and Gun Club, 
•which can only be construed to mean great personal popularity among his brother 
sportsmen, and an endorsement of his clever and genial nature. Perhaps few young 
men occupy a warmer place in the esteem of their friends than he. 

Dr. Eubank was married April 29, 1885, to Miss Cammie C, a daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. Crawford Blackwood. To this union has been "born one child — George Eubank, 
Jr. Dr. Eubank is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and both himself and Mrs. 
Eiibank are members of the Episcopal Church. 

Georgia. His father, who was a merchant, and was 
for several years ordinary of Thomas County, and his mother, Annie (Hall) Merrill, 
are both natives of Georgia. 

Charles A. Merrill received a common school education. When nineteen years of 
age he began the study of dentistry under Dr. D. S. Wright, at Macon, Georgia, and at 
the expiration of one year after commencing his studies, he went to the New York 
Dental College, and took a course of lectures. He practiced four years in Southwest 
Georgia, and Florida, and then went to Philadelphia, Pa., and took a regular course of 
studies in his chosen profession, graduating in 1882. He came to Birmingham in the 
same year, and practiced alone until 1884, when he formed a partnership with Dr. Wil- 
liam M. Horton, and the firm of Merrill & Horton does a fine practice. 

August 25, 1886, Dr. Merrill was married to Miss Margaret, daughter of Marshall 
H. and Martha J. Misemer, natives of Tennessee. 

He is a member of the Alabama Dental Association, of which organization he was 
secretary for some time. He is one of the directors of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. 

U/illiam /Tl. Horton ^'^^ ^''''^ ^f^.'-T^' t ^'*'" ^''^''' ^^^^™^' =*"^ 

' y ) ' IS a .son of W uham Horton, who was a planter and 

farmer. William was educated at the University of Alabama, and is also a graduate of 
the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, class of 1883, and began the practice of den- 
tistry in Birmingham, first in association with S. M. Talley, and at present in partner- 
ship with Charles A. Merrill, under the firm name of Merrill & Horton, which firm is 
one of the most prosperous in their line. 

Dr. Horton is, also, proprietor of the Lakeview Dairy, which was established in 
1886, and is one of the best in the county; also, proprietor of the Birmingham Steam 
Laundry, which he intends to make the best in the South. 

Dr. Horton is a worthy member of the Young Men's Christian Association and of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 



538 Jefferson County. 



Willianq M. WalKe^rolXth cSottFlSr^^^ 

father, Richard B. Walker, was born near the same place. His mother, Ann Flanagan, 
■was born in the same county. At eight years of age his father, with his entire family, 
emigrated to Madison County, Missouri. 

William A. had gone to the ordinary country schools some little before lea\'ing 
North Carolina, and, after arriving in his far-away home, went to school a short time 
there. The country was sparsely settled. The family remained in Missouri only four 
years, and then emigrated to Jefferson County, Alabama, and settled within six miles 
of Elyton. There was a brick courthouse and a brick jail then standing which were 
built in 1822, court having been held previously near Birmingham, on what is now the 
Elyton Land Company's property, and afterward at old Carrollsville. The court was 
first held at Elyton about 1821. There were, perhaps, only five hundred negroes in the 
county when the Walkers arrived. There were three brothers and five sisters in the 
family, of whom he was the oldest. Seven reached mature years. 

For the first twelve months William worked on the farm, plowing, harvesting, and 
doing all classes of work that usually falls to the lot of a farm boy. After this year he 
began school, usually going in the winter time. There were then no Indians in the 
county. There were many deer, panthers, bears, wolves, and smaller wild animals. 
He remembers catching a panther in a large steel trap. It measured seven feet from 
tip to tip. This is one of the few instances in which a panther has been known to be 
trapped. Here the family lived four years, and then went to a point on Five-Mile 
Creek, eight miles north of Brmingham. Five-Mile and Village Creeks have, respect- 
ively been known by their present names since the earliest settlements of the county. 

William was fifteen years old when his father moved to Five-Mile Creek. There they 
made the best crops. The family lived there about thirty or forty years. Both parents 
died after the close of the war. In 1834, when William was twenty-three years old, he 
remembers making, by his own labor on the land he cultivated, eight bales of cotton 
and one hundred and fifty buishels of corn. This he considers, even yet, good work. 
In the early part of 1835 he left the parental roof, and lived in the Five-Mile Valley, 
seven miles from the present city of Birmingham, with Colonel George Green. In 
1835 and 1836 he was a soldier in the Creek AVar, waged by General Jessup. He joined 
a militia company raised by Colonel McMillan. The company marched to Vernon, 
between Montgomery and Selma, on the Alabama River. They were disbanded there, 
after a few months, without being called on for active service. There w'ere a thousand 
or twelve hundred horsemen who rendezvoused at this point, most of them being 
young men. Most of those who thus volunteered received land warrants for their ser- 
vices — about eighty acres of the public domain in Illinois. William A. sold his land 
warrant in 1840-41, in AVall Street, to pui'chasing agents of the Illinois Central Railroad, 
then being built. He received one hundred dollars for it. 

After his return from the Creek War he came to Elyton and clerked in Mr. Abner 
Killough's store for three years, from 1837 to 1840. In the beginning of 1840 he began 



Biographical. 559 



merchandising in Elyton on hisown account. At first he bought goods in Mobile, Charles- 
ton, then in New York. For twenty-two years his goods came to Rome, Georgia, by 
rail, thence to Greenport by steamers on Coosa River, and were hauled fifty-six miles- 
over the roughest roads to Elyton. Goods bought in Mobile came by boat to Tusca- 
loosa, and were hauled by wagons to Elyton. 

Mr. Walker continued to merchandise at Elyton until the second year of the war 
1862, when, losing confidence in Confederate money, he retired. 

Mr. Walker was married in 1840 to Miss Gorilla M. Porter, a sister of Judge M. T. 
Porter. He has six children — Mary A., Margaret, William A., Jr., America, Frances, 
and Lucy Elizabeth. All these children are now living, and three of the number are 
settled in Birmingham. 

Mr. Walker owns a large landed estate of hundreds of acres near Birmingham. 
He is yet a hale and hearty man, noted for thrift and hospitality. He daily comes to 
town, and enjoys life. 

WiTTIflTTI PrSTllrTiTl MflflPr^ in the center of Nabers' Grove on the South 
IlilUaUl riailA.iill jiaUUlU. side, surrounded by gigantic oaks that breasted 
the storms ere the grandfathers of the men who made Birmingham saw the light of 
day, rests the comfortable home of Wm. F. Nabers, Esq. Upon the broad verandas that 
encircle this home of old-fashioned Southern style sat, many a summer night, Colonel 
James R. Powell, John T. Milner, Major Thomas Peters, and other pioneer spirits, 
■who there, in quiet seclusion, with no roar of the furnace or rush of the train to 
disturb them, and no sound to break the hush except the rustle of the leaves, talked 
over their schemes and devised the methods to make Birmingham the great city that it 
is to-day. The home of Mr. Nabers at that time was the only house near the site of 
Birmingham, and beneath its hospitable shelter these bold forerunners of progress 
found a cordial welcome. Now this once secluded homestead is surrounded by houses ; 
the Highland Avenue trains rush by the door, and the city stretches far away on either 
side. 

William F. Nabers is a member of one of the oldest and most respected families in 
Jefierson County. He is the son of Francis Drayton Nabers, and was born August 6, 
1830. He was educated at the Un iversitv of T ennessee, in the same class with M. T. 
Porter, Samuel Earle , F. M. Grace, and the Messrs. Camp, all of Jeflerson County. 
They made the long journey in a hack, for no railroads then traversed the country. 

In early manhood Mr. Nabers married Miss Betty, daughter of B. P. Worthington, 
Esq. Their interesting family surrounds them, and all the comforts of home life are at 
their command. Mr. Nabers has alw ays lived at his present home, and is the only 
man in Birmingham who enjoys the distinction of having always lived on the present 
site of this city. His father owned the farm upon which Birmingham is located ; and 
although Mr. Nabers has sold a large amount of land at a considerable advance, he still 
owns a number of lots and houses, and lives from his rent-roll like an English landlord. 
In the early days of Birmingham a crystal palace was erected in Nabers' Grove, and it 
was the scene of several barbecues, and rang with the clarion notes of Morgan, Pugh, 
Patton, Watts, and other leaders of the people, in the dark days of the reconstruction era. 



0. 5. Buruyi^ll 



is a native of Connecticut. Was educated at Amherst Col- 
lege, and was a neighbor and schoolmate of the Beechers, Dr. 
Lyman, Henry Ward's father, living in the same neighborhood. So did Samuel Colt, 
the inventor of the firearm. Mr. Burwell is a man of rare intelligence, and possessed 
a good education for his day. He came South in 1834, wasengaged in commercial enter- 



540 Jefferson Coiiiity. 



jjrises for several years before settling in Jefferson County, where he has been engaged 
in farming ever since. He was married to Emily Massey, a native of Jefferson County, 
in 1836. Mr. Burwell has been a man of strong moral character, and a great advocate 
of temperance, a puljlic-spirited citizen of progressive ideas. His children were Laura 
M., now Mrs. John F. Hanby, Orville C, who died in 1862, Mattie M., now Mrs. S. R. 
Truss, and T. O., now living in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Mr. Burwell, at this writing, has entirely lost his eyesight, and suffers his severe 
affliction with patience. He is deprived of his greatest luxun,'— reading. Mr. 
Burwell, though at an advanced age, is in moderate health, and bids fair to enjoy 
several years yet to the deUght of his family and friends. 



<^iefIarT) <K. ©yoo4 z 



vas born near Greenville, South Carolina, Jan- 
uary 22, 1821. His father, Edmond Wood, and 
his mother, Stella Wood, nee I\Iiss Stella Tarrant, were born in the same locality. He 
is of Huguenot extraction on both sides. In the year 1824 his father moved to Jeffer- 
son County and settled in Jones Valley, in what is now known as the Oak Grove com- 
munity, about ten miles northeast of the city of Birmingham. The valley was almost 
an unbroken wilderness of virgin forest, and contained but one storehouse, which 
stood in the Oak Grove neighborhood, and but one church, the present Ruhama Bap- 
tist Church. Here his father soon acquired large landed possessions, and on the pos- 
sessions the subject of our sketch lived to manhood, and upon a part of which he settled 
after marriage. There were eleven sons and one daughter born to his parents. His 
father was a man of the highest type of manhood, embodying all those traits of char- 
acter which go to make a man highly successful in life and a blessing to the community 
in which such a lite is spent. He strove to inculcate the principles of a noble life into 
the minds and hearts of his children. Right readily did the mind and heart of William 
H. imbibe the principles of honesty, faithfulness, frugality, energy, and grit so faith- 
fully taught to him by his father. 

His early days were spent on the farm, and his mind received such cultivation as the 
educational facilities of the community at that time afforded. At the age of nineteen 
he took charge of his father's large farming interests and managed them with marked 
success and skill for two years. In 1841 he was married to Miss Xancy C. Bradford, of 
St. Clair County. After his marriage his father gave him a farm, where he lived for 
two years, and then moved to his present home in the Ruhama community, and in 
the heart of the property of the East Lake Land Company. Here he has had an un- 
broken residence of forty-two years, during which time he has been a farmer, and 
for six years a merchant. Mr.Wood owned two hundred acres of land, now compris- 
ing a portion of the East Lake Land Company, for over forty years, and in the early 
part of 1886 purchased the balance to make up the two thousand acres which he sold 
to the East Lake Land Company, reserving one hundred shares of the stock of the 
company. 

Mr. Wood is a public-spirited man of the highest type. For forty years he has 
been the leading spirit of his community in every enterprise of public benefit and good, 
and the high character which the grand old Ruhama community has wherever it is 
known is largely due to his efforts toward progress and development, and whatever 
was necessary to be done for the good of his people was a personal matter with him, 
his labors, means, and brains were always ready. For forty-six years Mr. and Mrs. 
Wood have been man and wife, and never did man have a more faithful helpmate. Her 
sweet and even temper, kind and loving spirit, beautiful and faithful life, has been one 



Biograpldcal. 541 



unbroken sunlight of happiness in his home, cheering and comforting in tlie hour of 
disappointment, smoothing and soothing tlie ruffled temper, and rejoicing in the day of 
gladness. There have been born to them eight children, five of whom are living— Har- 
riet T., now Mrs. John B. Tarrant; Malinda, now Mrs. R. J. Waldrop ; Belle C, now 
]\Irs. R. W. Beck ; Fannie, and James B. Three are dead— Thomas Newton, Felix E., 
and Lulu May. 

Mr. Wood is a Mason, and has belonged to all the temperance societies, and all 
other movements which are intended for moral and religious elevation of the people. 
He has been an efficient and faithful member of Ruhama Baptist Church for the past 
fifty-three years. Whether marble shaft or plain stone shall mark his last resting place, 
yet when this is done, he will have clcsed a life of spotleiss character, unsullied honor, 
and which has been faithful to every trust and true to every duty, and those who come 
after him will rise up and call him blessed. 

r^ V)' 9\ Pa n ^''''® ^°''" '^' Tellice Plains, Tennessee, May 29, 1832. 

CC^an I fclCriOiaOri j^j^ father, WiUlam Nicholson, and his mother, Jane 
Adair, were born in Pickens District, South Carolina, and moved to Tennessee, in 1831, 
several years after their marriage, subsequently to Georgia, and afterward to DeKalb 
County, Alabama. The Indians were then numerous in that locality, and the subject 
of this sketch remembers vividly playing with the Indian children, and learned to speak 
the Cherokee tongue, the name of the tribe among w horn his parents lived. When the 
Indians were moved to their reservation in the Indian Territory, several years after his 
father's family had lived among them, he recalls distinctly the evidences of grief they 
manifested, and the deep sorrow in which they departed from the graves of their dead. 

There were eleven sons and four daughters born to his parents, and all of them 
lived to adolescence. Five of the sons were itinerant Methodist preachers ; four sons 
and three sons-in-law were in the Confederate Army. His parents w-ere married fifty 
years, and died each at the age of seventy. 

Young Nicholson enjoyed good educational advantages, that is, the best the schools 
and academies aflbrded, taking a thorough English course. He continued to go to 
school and work on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, and in his twenty- 
second year joined the old Alabama Conference, and was licensed to preach on May 24, 
1854, and has been in the itinerant work of his church thirty-three years. In 1855 he 
rode on the Sand Jlountain Circuit, and had charge of twenty churches, the distance 
around the circuit being two hundred miles. During this time he preached every day 
in the week except Monday. In the year 1856 he was on the Scottsville Circuit, where 
he had fourteen churches, rode one hundred miles to get around the circuit, and filled 
each pulpit once every three weeks. In 1857 he was on the New Lexington Circuit, 
with one hundred and fifty miles to ride, and eighteen pulpits to fill, and in this year 
■was ordained deacon by Bishop Soule, one of the great lights of his church. His 
labors had a vast territory, embracing difl'erent circuits from Selma to the northern 
boundaries of the State. He never rode less than a hundred miles to get around his 
circuits, and when it is remembered that many of the charges he has been called on to 
fill were nearly two hundred miles between their extreme points, and that it became 
necessary for him to go over these many times during a single year, some idea can be 
formed of the magnitude of the undertaking. With the exception of a forge here and 
there, no attention was then paid to the abundant iron ores. The forges were used to 
work the ore in the simplest manner possible. On December 22, 1857, Mr. Nicholson 
was married to Miss Martha A. Winn, of Tuscaloosa County. He lived in great happi- 
ness with her for sixteen years. Death then invaded the family sanctuary and deprived 



542 Jefferson County. 



him of his most excellent companion. Mrs. Nicholson died January 20, 1873, in Pick- 
ens County. A remarkable circumstance of the endurance of Mr. Nicholson may be 
stated just here. From the time he began to preach, up to the year 1860, he rested 
only one week out of the four in every month. When it is remembered that he 
preached every day in the week except one, this is remarkable. 

On January 20, 1875, Mr. Nicholson wiis married the second time, to Miss Agnes 
Murdoch, of Tuscaloosa County. To his first union was born five children, two sons 
and three daughters. One of the former is a practicing dentist at South Pittsburg, 
Tennessee, and the other a practicing physician at Centerville, Alabama. One single 
daughter resides with him. Of the other two, Mrs. K. W. Owen lives near her father, 
at Elyton, and Mrs. F. W. Beall lives in Birmingham. 

As an interesting summary of Mr. Nicholson's work the following figures are given, 
covering thirty-two years of active work in the moral \'ineyard : Number of miles 
traveled, mostly on horseback, 52,860; number of sermons preached, 3,495; number of 
persons received into the church, 2,057 ; number of conversions under his ministra- 
tions, 1,934 ; number of persons baptized, 1,000 ; number of expulsions from the church, . 
100 ; the greatest number in one year, 17 ; highest number of conversions in one year, 
which was in 1869, 136. 

At the meeting of the North Alabama Conference, 1886, Mr. Nicholson received his 
thirty-third appointment, which is West End Church, in West Birmingham. Mr. 
Nicholson has charge also of the Birmingham Mission. In all these thirty-two years of 
active ministerial labor, he has always been present at the first roll-call at every annual 
conference except three, and not a single charge has ever been brought against him. 
Of him it may be truly said, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 

■f I 1? r\^'C^ one of the best known and mo.st popular citizens of Bir- 

rrarpK^ -f ■ ^ JOnei^; mingham, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland, 
February 29, 1844. The parents of our subject were Michael A. and Mary (Corcoran) 
O'Brien, natives of Counties Limerick and Mayo respectively. 

His father was educated for the priesthood, and for several years taught school in 
his native country, and was also connected with the Dublin Nation, edited by John 
Mitchell. In 1848 he emigrated with his family to America and located at Honesdale, 
Pennsylvania, where he resumed teaching for some time ; also engaged in l>oating, 
having purchased and run two boats for three years, and subsequently removed to 
Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was appointed superintendent of the Diamond Mines. 

Our subject attended school from the age of five until fourteen years of age, when 
he ran away from home, at which period he began to learn the trade of scenic and fresco 
painter, under the instructions of the celebrated artist, Peter .Schmidt, who secured the 
second prize for merit at Washington for work in the Capitol buildings. Mr. O'Brien 
followed his trade until 1874, coming to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1859, with Mr. 
Schmidt, who had contracted to paint the scenic and fresco work of the Montgomery 
Theatre. In the spring of 1861 he joined the Independent Rifles, and with other young 
men went to Pensacola with tiie Second Alabama Regiment, returning in March, and 
April 30, 1861, he enlisted in the Montgomery Blues, which company was assigned to 
the Third Alabama Infantry Regiment, with Colonel Jones M. Withers, of Mobile, as- 
First Colonel, and Tennant Lomax as Lieutenant Colonel, and subsequently for two- 
years was in command of a body of scouts. At the battle of Little Washington he was- 
wounded, and remained three months in the hospital. Rejoining the company he was- 
again wounded, and subsequently taken prisoner at the second fight of Plymouth, North. 



Biographical. 543 



Carolina, December 12, 1864, and confined until paroled February, 1865. Rejoining bis 
regiment he remained in service until the close of the war. 

He remained in active business until 1871, when he came to Birmingham, and until 
1883 was one of the leading contractors and builders, employing at one time three hun- 
dred and fifty men. 

Mr. O'Brien is one of the heroes who stood at his post during the terrible cholera 
epidemic ; nursing the sick and alleviating the wants of the needy, until stricken down 
by the dread disease which nearly cost him his life. 

Mr. O'Brien has erected some of the most substantial buildings in the city. In 
1872 he erected the first place of amusement, Sublett Hall, on Second Avenue,, 
and conducted it as a place of amusement for two years. He superintended the con- 
struction of the rolling mills, and also built many of the coke ovens for the Pratt Coal 
& Iron Company and Alice Furnace Company. He also conducted a planing mill, and was 
engaged largely in manufacturing sash, doors, blinds, etc., and brought to the State of Ala- 
bama the first steam machinery for making brick. The building known as O'Brien's Opera 
House is the most substantial monument to his energy and enterprise. The building 
was commenced in May, 1882, and finished in November of the same year, and is one 
of the most imposing in the city ; its dimensions are 100x140 feet, four stories in height, 
and contains one of the finest-appointed opera houses in the South. It has a seating 
capacity of one thousand two hundred and sixty-six. The other portions of the build- 
ing are occupied as business rooms and offices. It is the intention of Mr. O'Brien to 
refurnish and enlarge his house the coming summer, and the season of 1887-88 will find 
this charming house of entertainment still more attractive. He has received plans for 
the construction of a four-story hotel to run in connection with the opera house. 

Mr. O'Brien is one of the most enterprising and popular men of the city, and as a 
manager, through his determination to exclude all companies that did not furnish enter- 
tainments of an elevating nature, has established the reputation of Birmingham as one 
of the best theatrical cities in the South. He is vice-president of the Southern 
Theatrical Circuit, which has twenty-three opera houses and theatres in it. 

Mr. O'Brien has large real estate interests in Birmingham, and is a man of much 
influence, generous, and genial to all. He has served as a member of the board of 
alderman, and is a member of the Masonic order; for several years was grand captain 
general of the Knights Templar ; was a member of the grand encampment of the United 
States for the years of 1880, '81, and '82. 

October 11, 1865, he was united in marriage with Miss Dannie, daughter of Dr. 
Andrew and Ann R. (Allen) jNIcBride, of Montgomery. Five children have been born 
to them — Mary T., Anna T., Margaret E., Frank P., deceased, 'and Dannie M. The 
family are members of the Catholic Church of Birmingham. 

(S^porn-P O ®\/\/nrr3 ^'^^ ^°™ '^ Culpeper County, near Culpeper 
\Z\Vy\J\ ye- J-^. w Y V U.I vsL p^^j.^ House, Virginia, January 17, 1831. His father, 
Roberto. Ward, was sheriff of the county some years, and then clerk of the county 
court until the war came on. His mother, Judith E. Field, was a member of the dis- 
tinguished family of that name in Virginia. There were eight children in the family — 
Judith, now Mrs. Edwin Booton, of Greene County, Virginia ; Mary V., now Mrs. John 
Booton, of Madison County, Virginia; Matilda S., Elizabeth S., wife of Dr. Powell, of 
the United States Army ; George R. Daniel, Sinclair, and Fannie. 

Young Ward's early education was good, and his classical training and instruction 
in the higher branches of mathematics was especially thorough. He stood an examina- 
tion for appointment to the United States Military Academy, and he was to succeed 



544 Jefferso7i County. 



young A. P. Hill, of Confederate Army fame. He received his appointment from the 
Hon. John S. Pendleton. 

Young Ward got as far as Baltimore, on his way to West Point, when his wishes 
suddenly changed, and he gained a position in the large dry goods house of David 
Leeche & Son. He lived in Baltimore until November, 18.53. He then came to Rome> 
Georgia, and was in the dry goods business until 1S59. He then became interested in 
the cotton business, and had an interest in a steamboat line that ran packets on the 
Coosa River. He remained in this business until 1872, when, with Mr. William 
Ketcham, his father-in-law, became part proprietor of the Relay House. On the death 
of Mr. Ketcham, in 1877, he became sole proprietor, and kept the hotel until it was torn 
down in the year 1886. Perhaps no hotel in this country, and certainly none in the 
South, was ever more successful, and no business of any kind was ever more so in Bir- 
mingham. It was a popular house, and the proprietor of no hotel in the South was 
held in greater esteem. 

Mr. Ward was married February, 1857, to Miss Margaret Ketcham, of Rome, 
Georgia. Her fathei' came South many years ago from New Jersey, and for a long while 
lived in Hamburg, South Carolina, and in Rome, Georgia, until coming to Birmingham. 
Mrs. Ward was born in Connecticut, of which State her mother was a native. Mr. \\'ard 
is the father of five children — Medora Crane, wife of G. W. Proctor, of Louisville, Ken- 
tucky ; Robert F., recorder of deeds in Bush County, Kansas ; Slary B., now Mrs. W. 
J. Cameron, W. P., and George B., of Birmingham. 

Mr. Ward belongs to the Odd Fellows and Knights of Honor, and both he and Mrs, 
Ward are members of the Episcopal Church. 

<30.M\n sK. J\. UyPer ;vas born in Lewiston, Niagara county^ 

^ I •■ ^ -^ ©/ lork, April 26, 1833, just across the Niagara 

River from the Canada shore. His father, Augustus Tyler, was a native of Canada, but 
came to America when he was a young man. His mother was a native of America. 
His was a common school education, and it was at an early period of his life that he 
left school. In his twentieth year he moved, with his father and mother, to Leslie, 
Michigan, not far from Jackson. He was a mechanic, and was engaged in contracting 
and building up to the breaking out of the war. 

September 7, 1861, he enlisted in the Third Michigan Regiment, but was subse- 
quently transferred to the Twenty-fourth Missouri, and was made second lieutenant of 
Company H. Colonel Boyd was commander of the regiment. He was at the battle of 
Pea Ridge, and for valiant conduct was especially commended by the Detroit Tribune. 
On account of sickness he was afterward compelled to return to his home, but was soon 
recommissioned by Governor Blair as second lieutenant of the Sixth ^Michigan Cavalry 
Regiment. He then went to Virginia, where he took part in some of the leading battles 
of the war in 1864 and 1865. He was at the battles of Sheppardtown, Winchester, Cedar 
Creek, Five Forks, and aU the battles in which General Sheridan commanded. He was 
in the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, commanded by General Custer. He was never 
wounded, but had some very narrow escapes. At the battle of Five Forks he had a bul- 
let to pass through his clothes, and on different occasions had four horses shot from 
under him. He was at the surrender, April 9, 1865, and in the following May, with his 
brigade, went to the Rocky Mountains, and was in command of a company of infantry 
and two companies of cavalry at Deer Creek, a short distance this side of Fort Kaspar, 
. so named in honor of Lieutenant Kaspar Collins, who was massacred near this point 
with ten men by the Indians. 



Biographical. 545- 



In November, 1865, he was mustered out of the service. He then went to Jackson, 
Michigan, and resumed his former business of contracting. He lived there until April, 
1872, when he came to Birmingham, and for a large portion of the time since has fol- 
lowed his trade. He is among those who stayed in the desolate city during the ravages 
of the cholera scourge. 

Captain Tyler has seen Birmingham's darkest days; been the warmest supporter of 
her inevitable greatness ; and for his firm belief in this fact has been abundantly 
rewarded. He has been successful in all his undertakings. His real estate transactions 
have netted him large returns, and have placed him among the thoroughly independent 
men of the Magic City. 

The captain delights to tell of the time when he first came to Birmingham, and con- 
trasting the pa.st with the present. Many places where there are now thriving estab- 
lishments of industry, or where the busy scenes of commerce are the marks of the mar- 
velous change which has been wrought in so short a time, bore when he came the evi- 
dences of recent cultivation of the soil. 

folk, England. He was educated and served articles in England ; was especially pre- 
pared in mathematics by his father, who, with his brother. Professor Wilson, of the 
Melbourne University, Australia, took honors at Cambridge, the latter being the senior 
wrangler of his year. Having served his articles Mr. Wilson accepted a position on 
the extension of the Northern Railway of Canada, connecting with the Canada Pacific 
Railway, where he was employed as an assistant engineer for three years. He was then 
for a short time the contractor's engineer for a tunnel under the Hudson River, Albany, 
New York. Leaving there he was assigned to a position on the great Welland Canal 
enlargement, under the Canadian Government, where he remained six years. He was 
then attracted by the Southern States as likel)' to furnish a wide scope for his talents. 
Mr. Wilson's first work in the South was the construction of two divisions of the Louis- 
iana Western Railway, under Chief Engineer Polk ; leaving at its completion to assume 
the position of principal assistant to Mr. E. L. Corthell, the resident engineer of the Eads 
Jetties, at the mouth of the INIississippi River. Mr. Wilson succeeded to the position of 
resident engineer when Mr. Corthell resigned to accept his present position of chief 
engineer of the Tehuantepec Ship Railway, and remained at the jetties until their com- 
pletion. The Mexican Government having called upon that celebrated engineer, James 
B. Eads, for a plan for the improvement of the Harbor of Tampico, Mexico, Mr. Wil- 
son was sent as Mr. Eads' representative, and made the necessary surveys and exami- 
nations in twenty-six days, to Mr. Eads' entire satisfaction. The plan was adopted, 
and Mr. Wilson appointed to take charge of the work, which, owing to the fianancial 
difficulties of Mexico, has not yet been completed. Mr. Wilson remained in Mexico 
two years, locating and constructing the first division of the Mexican Central Railway, 
at Tampico, under Chief Engineer James Harrington. His health being much im- 
paired by the fevers of that low part of Mexico, Mr. Wilson accepted a cable offer of 
the charge of the "Improvement of the Mouth of Red River and the Rectification of 
the Head of the Atchafalaya," under the Mississippi River Commission. A part of the 
duties which devolved upon Mr. Wilson was the maintenance of seven miles of low 
water navigation through Old River, which connects the Mississippi and Red Rivers. 
To this he applied the jetty or contraction plan, and invented a large steamboat scraper, 
which accomplished wonderful results on the bars and mud lumps in that locality. 



546 Jefferson County. 



After much correspondence and treaty with all the representatives of foreign coun- 
tries, where there were great engineering works contemplated, Mr. Wilson has selected 
Birmingham, Alabama, as being the center of a great country from which gigantic 
enterprises must come. Mr. Wilson will remain in Birmingham, where he is already 
well-known as a competent engineer, an accomplished scholar, and a refined gentleman, 
permanently. 

Mr. Wilson employs, in his regular force in Birmingham, fifteen ci^^l engineers, 
and since coming here his work has constantly increased. In his office is Mr. Thomas 
F. O'Brien, a most accomplished young civil engineer. Among his patrons are some of 
the most important enterprises of the city. He is the engineer for the East Birming- 
ham Land Company, the West End Land Company, the Highland Lake Land Company, 
Clifton Land Company, Red Mountain Steam JNIotor Line, Western Valley Street Rail- 
road, Birmingham Street Railway Company, the Birmingham Mineral and Mining 
Company, the Highland Land and Lake Company, the Brooklyn Land Company, all of 
Birmingham, and has a contract for the Talladega Land Company, and in addition does 
a great deal of other work, so that his office does a most lucrative business. 

Mr. AVilson is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, and belongs 
to the Episcopal Church. 

RTaT n Ti7iIrJrs was born in Germany in February, 1840, and is a son of Wm. 
. W < ii. W llUd E. and Jennie Wilda, both natives of that country. The 
father of our subject was a man of fine attainments and superior education, and for a 
long time was a professor of jurisprudence in several of the best universities of Ger- 
many. Our subject was well educated, and when sixteen years of age entered a large 
tea and coffee house in Hamburg, where he remained for four years. Emigrating to 
America in 1S60, he enlisted in 1861 in Company H, Seventh New York Infantry, and 
in 1862 re-enlisted and was placed by consolidation in the One Hundred and Seventy- 
eighth New York Regiment. He remained in the service until the close of the war, 
being wounded at P>edericksburg, Tupelo, Mississippi, and at Nashville, Tennessee, 
serving one year as chief clerk to General Charles R. Wood. 

From 1865 until 1876 he was in the postoffice and revenue service at Atlanta, Geor- 
gia, and subsequently was engaged in the office of the general manager of the Atlanta 
& Richmond Railroad. Mr. Wilda next was appointed general land agent of the L. & 
N., which position he creditably filled until 1886, when he resigned, and, after a trip to 
Europe, came to Birmingham and established the Birmingham Steam Laundry, located 
on Avenue C, South Side, one of the most complete laundries in the State. 

Mr. Wilda, as will be seen, has occupied many important positions, and has been 
faithful to every trust. He is one of the most respected citizens of Birmingham. 

In 1866 he married Miss Mary Baumer, of Mobile, who died in 1881, leaving three 
■<;hildren — Hans, Joseph, and Marie. His second wife is Annie, daughter of C. J. Fiquet, 
of Tuscaloosa. 

Mr. Wilda is also a large real estate dealer, and has been very successful in this line. 

Jr>hn Dholan ^^^ '^"'^'^ ^* Marion, Perry County, Alabama, November 22, 1842. 
t ' t f\ ' His father, Hon. John D. Phelan, who died while on a visit to this 
city, in September, 1879, in the seventieth year of his age, was for many yearsa justice of 
the Supreme Court of Alabama. He was one of the best known men in the State, and 
of the many eminent citizens and jurists of the distinguished body with which he was 
so long associated, none merited or enjoyed greater love and confidence of the people. 



Biographical. 547 



John Phelan, whose name stands at the head of this sketch, graduated from the 
University of Alabama in 1861, in the tirst class of military cadets that graduated from 
that institution. 

May 13, 1861, he enlisted at Tuscaloosa as orderly sergeant in the Warrior Guards, 
Fifth Alabama Regiment, C. S. A., and served to the close of the war. 

In the fall of 1861 the Warrior Guards re-enlisted in the service as an artillery com- 
pany, with Phelan as captain. This company was known thereafter as " Phelan's Bat- 
tery," and at the battles of Chickamauga, Resaca, Franklin, the Dalton and Atlanta 
campaign, etc., did memorable service. 

At Resaca, on IMay 13, 1864, Captain Phelan was so seriously wounded as to neces- 
sitate a furlough home, where, upon his arrival, he met his two brothers, who, like 
himself, had returned " for repairs." 

Of the four Phelan brothers who so gallantly hurried to the front at the first sound 
of battle, the eldest, Captain Watkins Phelan, was killed at Petersburg, Virginia, nine 
days before Lee's surrender ; Captain Thomas Phelan was killed in the famous charge 
at Gaines' Mill, and Major Ellis Phelan was seriously wounded at Atlanta. 

" The Phelan brothers, and what a superb set of men they were ! Thomas, with 
his amiable manners ; Watkins, with his conservatism and elegance ; both so full of life 
and hope, so calculated to serve their State in stations lofty and honorable ; alas, only a 
few more summers after, and they fell in front of the guns upon the soil of Virginia. 
Jack Phelan, the handsomest man of his day, rode with his battery, gallant and true, 
while no braver lad than Ellis Phelan ever followed the flag of the South, nor more 
exemplary man ever adorned the walks of private and official life." 

Captain Phelan studied law at Montgomery, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar, 
where he readily made name and reputation in the greatest of professions but one. He 
practiced law up to 1884; came to Birmingham in the summer of 188.5, and became the 
manager of the Cotton and Produce Exchange. 

Mr. Phelan married Miss Anna 0. Sale, in Lawrence County, this State, and their 
family consists of four sons and two daughters. 

©\f\f STi (^ T-Tn rrl I n rr ^** ^°^'^ ''^ Greene County, Alabama, in 1864 ; 
wyv.^. KZ\, (y luroilll^ lived in Enterprise, Mississippi, till he was eight 
years old, when his parents removed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, After attending private 
schools in Tuscaloosa, he entered the University of Alabama in the fall of 1878, and 
was graduated from that institution in July, 1881, with the degree of A. M. Shortly 
afterward he attended the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, and 
received a diploma in October, 1881. He became bookkeeper for the bank of J. H. Fitts 
& Co., of Tuscaloosa, in February, 1882, which position he held for several years. 
Coming to Birmingham in March, 1886, he became bookkeeper for Jemison, Hill & Co., 
and remained with them a few months, when he was appointed bookkeeper for the 
Berney National Bank ; was made assistant cashier in July, 1886, and holds that posi- 
tion at present. Mr. Harding is another illustration of the success attending the 
deserving young men of Alabama. 

©Wiffiam J\. Dorfer. °'''' °^ ^^^ ™°'* promising of the deserving 
I 1 ' young men of Birmingham, and one who is a 

descendant of the oldest families of Jefferson County and Alabama, was born in Elyton, 
April 18, 1862, and is a son of Judge Mitchell T. and Catharine (Martin) Porter. He 
received a commercial education, and is a graduate of the Poughkeepsie Business Col- 
lege, of New York, class of 1883. His business experience commenced as a clerk in the 



548 Jefferson County. 



land office of Thomas Peters, where he remained one year, and subsequently was 
employed as bookkeeper in the wholesale grocery house of Wimberly, Malone & Co., 
and one year later was appointed as clerk of the probate court, under his father. 

He entered the Alabama State Bank, as bookkeeper, in October, 1885, and was 
soon promoted to the position of paying teller, which position he now occupies. 

Mr. Porter is a young man of exemplary habits, and a capacity for doing business 
that cannot be excelled He is one of the rising young men of Birmingham, and is 
already interested in large corporations, being a stockholder in the Alabama National 
and the Birmingham National Banks, and several other enterprises. 

^in ^ A / /I'k'U It ■p'-l'^A/<•f A-p^l ■"'as born in Eutaw, Greene County, Ala- 
AAL . ^ eO D OraWTOra ^ama, August 27, 1867, and is the son of 
the late Colonel Robert Crawford, a lawyer. He received his education at the public 
schools of St. Louis, but the desire to do something for himself caused him, at the age 
of sixteen, to quit school and become the shipping clerk for a large pork-packing estab- 
lishment. Upon the death of his father, in 1884, he came back to Alabama with his mother, 
and entered the banking house of A. Lawson, at Greensboro, Alabama, where he 
learned the banking business. He came to Birmingham to live in November, 1886, and 
entered the Berney Bank as bookkeeper, but was soon promoted to the responsible 
position of receiving teller, which position he still occupies. 

(7^ P7> ^PnT\o ^^''' ^^o""" ''1 Baltimore County, near the city of Baltimore, 
VJ. Ci. ^laeie j^^^^ 3^ jgg^ ^^^ family was one of the oldest in that State, 
and trace their history back to the time of the landing of the first settlers. His father, 
Levi Slade, and his mother, Annie E. Fuller, were both of English origin. His great- 
grandfather purchased about two hundred and thirteen acres of land belonging to Lord 
Baltimore, north of the city. It was here that the old home stood, and on it also- 
stands a church, built of brick brought from England in the year 1700. It has been 
standing for one hundred and fifty years, and is perfectly preserved. The Slade family 
still own this property. 

Young Slade went to school in Baltimore from the time he was five years old until 
he was fifteen. He became allured to machinery, and had an overpowering desire to- 
be a locomotive engineer. He left home at fifteen, and spent four years in apprentice- 
ship in the shops of the Northern Central Railroad in Baltimore. Shortly after this he 
went to Charleston, South Carolina, and ran on the old South Carolina Railroad for one 
year, and then went to the Island of Cuba in the fall of 1855, and ran a locomotive on 
the Metansas & Sabaniela, and Cardenas Railroads. He returned to Baltimore in 1856, 
and ran on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad until the fall of 1857, and shortly afterward 
went to Rio Janeiro, Brazil, and was an engineer on the Dom Pedro, the second railroad, 
and again came back home in the latter part of 1859. He went to Mobile, Alabama, 
and was an engineer on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. He became acquainted here with. 
Miss I. T. Sullivan, who belonged to one of the best families of Georgia, to whom he 
was married on November 1, 1861. He then was engaged on steamships around New 
Orleans, and in towboat trade on the Mississippi River. He was in New Orleans, 
during its cai^ture by the Federal forces, and operated for the Confederate Government 
the motive department of the New Orleans & Jackson Railroad, as far as Brazier. He 
refused, when requested to take the oath of allegiance to the United States Govern- 
ment. 

When New Orleans fell, Mr. Slade, in company with his young wife, had an adven- 
ture in making their escape. The young couple, with a few personal effects, started 



Biographical. 549 



along Berwick Bay, parallel to the Teche River. About dark a Confederate gunboat 
and a Federal fleet sighted each other, and a spirited engagement ensued. The waves, 
in consequence of the movement of the vessels, were dashed high, and it looked as 
though the young pair were doomed to a watery grave. They got ashore, and after the 
battle ceased made their escape. 

Young Slade would have been deemed a great prize could he have been captured 
by the enemy. He was one of the most important men belonging to the Confederate 
forces at this point. His escape was the more remarkable, especially as detectives were 
continually on his track. Had he been taken he would beyond doubt have met a 
sanguinary fate. A large portion of the time he was being hunted he was doing 
machinist work for the Federal Army, but was, of course, in disguise. This was, at 
this time, his only means of support. 

After his escape Mr. Slade made his way to Baltimore, and secured the pass, which 
enabled him to go, from a Yankee quartermaster. His wife joined him at his father's 
home soon after he had left her in a place of safety in New Orleans. He then ran in 
the coast trade between Baltimore and various places until February, 1865. He was in 
the trade between Baltimore and New Orleans and other ports from that time on for 
several years. 

After being in various places in the South Mr. Slade came to Birmingham, May 24,, 
1873, and then was foreman and ma,ster mechanic of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- 
road Shops, and in 18S0 assisted in putting up the machinery of the Alice Furnace, No> 
1, and the Rolling Mills. In the years 1878 and 1879 he was away from Birmingham, 
but has been here continually since 1880. Mr. Slade has been connected with various 
important enterprises in and around Birmingham ever since. He is now master 
mechanic of the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, and has been since December, 1883. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Slade are members of the Catholic Church. 

^ir ^ir r7CfriC,l(?n was born April 15, 1850, in Warren County, Oeor- 
J/ \L • -1/ VL. . 0«^ \ I t~) i^ gia. His father, when he was one year old, moved 
to Graysville, Georgia, and lived there eight years, and during this time was sectioa 
foreman on the Western & Atlantic Railroad. He went to school while here, and all 
his education was obtained from time to time, at different places, at country schools. 
He was on his father's farm in Tennessee until the war came on, and in 1864 his father 
moved to Rudolph County, Alabama, and farmed, with the assistance of his younger 
boys, the four oldest being in the war. 

In 1866 he returned to near Graysville, with the rest of the family, and in 1869, his. 
father, having gone to Union .Springs, Alabama, was soon afterward joined by his sons. 
He was watchman for the Mobile & Gerard Railroad, but soon took the position of fore- 
man on the Montgomery & Eufaula Railroad, and at one and the same time the father 
and his six sons were on this road, and all of them as section foremen. 

In 1876 he came to Birmingham, and ran the material train fourteen months with- 
out an accident, on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and since coming here has had 
the strange coincidence to happen of himself and his three brothers — Marion, Mike, 
and Thomas, being made roadmasters of as many different divisions on the Louisville & 
Nashville Railroad, on the same day in 1884, several of whom are still serving in this 
capacity. His father died in 1873 in his fifty-fifth year, at Rising Fawn, Georgia, and his 
mother in April, 1882. 

Mr. Ansley was married in October, 1872, to Miss Annie Clark, of Hatchechubbee, 
Alabama. 

30 



550 Jefferson Coioity. 



He sustains with credit his important position of roadmaster to the Louisville & 
Nashville Railroad, and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
since he was fifteen years old. 

Or,-R«>K>'t'(^A/ la^nPri^Ifpr was born in Montgomery County, Virginia, May 
■'V'"-'^'^' Wyv. ©rUl Oilier ^^^^^^_ His father, Joseph B. Fulwiler, was a 
native of Rockbridge County, in the same State, and is still living at the birthplace of 
the subject of this sketch. His mother, Martha W. Pepper, was a native of Montgomery 
County, and died in 1852. There were five children born to them, of whom, he and a 
sister, Mrs. Emma Kirkwood, of Montgomery County, Virginia, are the survivors. 

Robert W. attended school up to June, 1862, and in April, 1863, he entered the Con- 
federate service in Company G, Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry. He was in various bat- 
tles until April 1, 1865, when he was captured at Petersburg, Virginia, and was kept a 
prisoner until June 12th of the latter year. 

At the close of the war he went to Memphis, and was employed as messenger with 
the Pioneer Express Company. He was in the express service there until December, 
1869, when he went to Columbia, Tennessee, as agent for the Southern Express Com- 
pany until December, 1879. He then filled a similar position at Grand Junction, in the 
same State, until March, 1886. During eighteen months of the latter period he was 
mayor of the town. 

Since becoming a citizen of Birmingham, Mr. Fulwiler has been agent for the South- 
ern Express Company. This is one of the most important offices in the South, and since 
his management of it the business has increased very greatly. He has shown his 
capacity for the duties of his position, and the business continues to keep equal pace 
with the rapid growth of the city. 

Mr. Fulwiler was married in June, 1871, to Miss Isadore W. Haines, of Fauquier 
County, Virginia. To them have been born six children — Willie A., Oscar, deceased; 
Isadore H., deceased ; Carrie, Beatrice, and Inez. 

He is a Knight of Pythias, and all the members of his family are Episcopalians. 

JH rn cCt I n^ '® * native of Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1841, and a son 
• /■• /M\V'V*^ of J. B. and Mary (Wilson) McCune, both natives of the old 
Keystone State. His father being a farmer, our subject was reared upon the farm, 
receiving good educational advantages. He enliisted in 1861 in Company A, Ninth 
Pennsylvania Reserves, and served as a private over three years. His regiment was 
engaged at Drainsville, first and second Fredericksburg, and second Manassas. At the 
latter place he was taken prisoner. Subsequently he fought in the great battle of the 
war — Gettysburg. Upon his return home he was engaged for a number of years at car- 
penter's work in the coal works of Alleghany and the Eliza Furnaces of Pittsburg. 
For several years succeeding he was engaged at various places, superintending blast 
furnaces, contracting to build, and managing manufacturing enterprises in Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and West Virginia, the greater portion being passed as manager of the 
Riverside Furnace and the Wheeling Iron and Nail Works Furnace, of Wheeling, West 
Virginia. 

Mr. McCune came to Alabama in 1882, thoroughly proficient in his business, after 
years of practical experience. He built the Woodward Furnace at Wheeling, this 
count)', remaining there two and a half years. Subsequently he removed to Birming- 
ham, and was given the charge of the Sloss Furnace, which he conducted for a short 
time. He was next associated with Robert Roberts in manufacturing sheet-iron work 
and boilers, for a short period only, and was then placed in charge of the Henryellen 



Biographical. 551 



Coal Mines. Subsequently he erected the second furnace for the Woodward Company, 
and was then made superintendent, but resigned his position after one year's service. 

Mr. McCune is now residing in Birmingham, and devoting his attention to the erec- 
tion of furnaces, in which he has no superior. As a citizen he is honored and respected; 

Mr. McCune was married November 28, 1866, to Miss Maggie J. Douglass. They 
have one child — Hazie. Mr. and Mrs. McCune are members of the First Presbyterian 
Church of Birmingham. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

Daniel 5. marablp T\'Tv'\^T''"^rt-'7'l^''t'^'''''^^'^''\f 

' ' * \ bcotch-Enghsh descent. His father, Benjamin Marable, 

and his mother, Fannie A. Terry, were both Virginians. The former was a captain of 
cavalry in the war of 1812. 

The subject of this sketch was the oldest child in a family of four brothers, of 
whom only he and his brother Abner survive. The father died in 1871, and the mother 
still lives at the old homestead in Virginia. 

Having attended school near his home till he was near fourteen years old, our sub- 
ject entered the Beulah Military Institute at Madison, North Carolina, where he 
remained about two years, until July, 1862. He left to enter the Confederate service 
at Richmond, Virginia, under Colonel J. C. Shields, as a lieutenant; was assigned to 
drill-master's duties, and soon afterward was assigned to the command of a company. 
Subsequently he wiis assigned to the department commanded by Colonel R. E. Withers, 
at Danville, Virginia, where, in field and camp, he continued his patriotic service until 
the conclusion of the struggle. 

Resuming the duties of citizenship, Mr. Marable spent some years in farming at 
his old home in Virginia, and subsequently in a large business at Winston, North Caro- 
lina, where he acquired such a position in commercial circles that he commanded the 
confidence of the leading bankers and business men of that community. 

Having prospered throughout the West, Mr. Marable came to Birmingham in Sep- 
■ tember, 1884, and on November 14th he organized the Birmingham Agricultural Works 
as a stock company, with a capital of $50,000, of which he was general manager until 
1886. Having sold out his interest in this concern, on January 10, 1887, in connection 
with H.L. Wattlington,he organized the Alabama Asphalt Mining andLand Co., with a 
capital stock of $300,000, of which he is general manager. In this company^ which will 
develop one of the finest deposits of asphalt in the world, located at a short distance 
from Birmingham, the center of the mineral district of Alabama, Messrs. Sloss, DeBar- 
deleben, Pinkard, Hawkins, and Wooldridge — prominent capitalists — are large and 
influential stockholders. 

Mr. Marable stands in Birmingham, and wherever he is known, high as a man of 
affairs, energetic, intelligent, and industrious, influential through these qualities, and 
the very man to develop the large interests now committed to his charge. 

Mr. Marable was most happily married on April 4, 1864, to Miss Mary Ellen Cabi- 
ness, of Halifax County, Virginia. Death deprived him of this beloved participant in. 
his fortunes on February 6, 1887. Four children survive — Adelaide, the relict of the 
late W. H. Polk, a talented lawyer, who died in Birmingham in October, 1886 ; Misses 
Fannie and Sallie Lou, and Benjamin Edward. 

The future, we doubt not, has in store for the subject of this sketch a career to 
which we predict added honors each succeeding year of hfe. 



552 Jeffejsoti Coti7ity. 

c\\ '^ y>y>i ■) ^^^ rf\ O ^^°'°'' member of the firm of Harry Stone & Co., brokers 
«/ ( tA.1 t^ ,.^\.\J\ CWj jjj grain, flour, meat, sugar, molasses, etc., is a native of 
Memphis, Tennessee, where he was born December 18, 1859. 

After completing his education, which consisted in a thorough course at a Memphis 
college, he began life for himself. His first employment was as a clerk, and subse- 
quently with the Southern Express Company in various clerical departments, acquir- 
ing a practical knowledge of business, and the thorough appreciation of system and 
order that will characterize the rest of his life. 

He came to Birmingham in January, 1887, and engaged in his present business, the 
result of which has been fully commensurate with his most sanguine expectation. His 
life in Memphis was such as gave him ample acquaintance with the very sort of people 
most needed by a young man when embarking in business, and their highest recom" 
mendation and endorsement accompany Mr. Stone to this city. 

He was married in his native city, in 1881, to Miss Anna F., the accomplished 
daughter of the late Dr. D. B. Bynum, of Memphis. 

^ ^ ^^ 'l'^ ■• I8b3. He IS a son of Rev. Washmgton Glad- 

den, pastor of the First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio. While quite young, 
Mr. Gladden's family moved to North Adams, Massachusetts, where he attended the 
public schools until he was eight years old, when his family moved to Brooklyn, New 
York, where he attended the public schools and afterward the Polytechnic Institute. 
After a year's course at the latter school the family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, 
where Mr. Gladden fitted for college at the high school, and after graduating, entered 
Amherst College at Amherst, Massachusetts. In the meantime his family had moved 
to Columbus, Ohio, where Mr. Gladden went after leaving college, and soon obtained a 
position in the Pan Handle Railroad. After remaining there for two years he went to 
St. Louis to take a clerkship in the Indiana & St. Louis Railroad. It was while in St. 
Louis that Mr. Gladden heard of the vast growth of Birmingham, which thereby deter- 
mined his location here in September, 1886. He is engaged in the general commission 
and brokerage business, in association with Mr. L. W. Patteson, under the firm name 
fo Gladden & Patteson. Mr. Gladden belongs to the Alpha Delta Phi Society, and is a 
member of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio. 

Toomhc n V>\l^CS'cA °^ '^® ^"^^ °^ Crawford & Co., security brokers, wag 
1 aarrjUb U.1 d W | Ui U, bom at Columbus, Georgia, in 1860. His father, Hon. 
Martin J Crawford, who died July 21, 1883, was one of the best known and most popular 
men in the South. At the time of his death he had just completed one term as Judge 
of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and been re-elected for the ensuing eight years. Georgia 
was his native State, and he was representing her in the United States Congress at the 
outbreak of the late war, subsequently becoming a member of the Confederate Con- 
gress, and later a member of the historic peace commission. 

Our subject came from Columbus, Georgia, to this city, in August, 1886, and estab- 
lished his present business — the second of the kind in Birmingham. 

He was educated at the Agricultural and Military College at Auburn; wasemployed 
as clerk some time, and during the years 1882-83 was a civil engineer on the Pensacola 
& Atlantic Railway, in Florida. For a while, in 18^5, he was carrying on a general 
brokerage business, both at Columbus, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. 

He was married at Columbus, Georgia, in 188.5, to Miss Annie Oslin, daughter of 
Dr. J. W. Oslin, now of Gainesville, Georgia. 



Biographical. 553 



TITnm r7nmin Manager and one of the proprietors of the Wilson House, was born 
1 UU( L/L)iill() in Hale County, September 28, 1845, and is the youngest of five 
sons reared by Sam and Martha A. (Evans) Cowin, natives of Maryland and Georgia, 
respectively. The senior Cowin was a lieutenant in the Fifth Alabama (C. S. A.) ; his 
eldest son, a sergeant in his company, was killed at Chancellorsville, and another son 
■was severely wounded at Seven Pines. The father and three sons were all volunteers 
at the same time. The old gentleman died in 1870, and his second son, William, in 1873. 
Tom Cowin was educated at the University of Alabama. He joined an independent 
cavalry company in 1863 and served to the end of the war, participating in many hard- 
fought battles, the last being Selma, April 1, 1865, where he received a severe gunshot 
wound in the head. The following summer he engaged in the commission busine.ss at 
Mobile. Three years later he opened the Gulf City Hotel, and from that date he has 
been a hotel man, going from Mobile to Greensboro, Selma, Calera, Eutaw, Greensboro, 
Livingston, and Birmingham, In the order named. Here he managed the Florence 
from August, 1886, up to April, 1887, when in company with a Mr. Brown, he purchased 
the Wilson. 

Colonel Cowin is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, K. of P., I. O. O. 
F., A. O. U. W., and the order of the Golden Rule. 

He married in Greene County, March 28, 1871, Miss Cornelia Collins, daughter of 
Josiah Collins, and a native of this State. 

Ari Wn/lA ^'^^ born at Jonesboro, Tennessee, in 1849. His parents removing 
■ Ui IlaUu thence to Alabama, he here grew to manhood, acquiring his educa- 
tion at Courtland. 

His first business venture was as a merchant at Towncreek, this State, where he 
remained about eight years, removing from there to Starkville, Mississippi, in 1878. He 
was in mercantile trade about three years, when he returned to Alabama, and at Oxford 
ran the Central Hotel up to 1881. At Lafayette he again merchandised a year ; opened 
the Railroad House at Oxanna (Anniston) and conducted it a year, and came to Bir- 
mingham, January, 1887, where he was proprietor of the Wilson House up to the latter 
part of March of that year. 

At Florence, this State, he married Miss Lallie Louisa Powers, an accomplished and 
excellent lady. 

f OATriO RjinC '* * native of Racine, Wisconsin, where he was born March 31, 1853, 
UCUlfjC Udpo and ig a son of W. A. and Anna B. (Steininger) Raps, natives of 
Bavaria, Germany, coming to America and locating in New York State, subsequently 
removing to Racine, Wisconsin, where the father of our subject was successfully 
engaged in business until the spring of 1865, when he removed to Murfreesboro, Ten- 
nessee, where he engaged in farming and conducting a hotel until his death, in 1880' 
The mother died in 1882. 

Our subject is the fourth of a family of seven children, and was educated in the 
public schools of Racine, Wisconsin, and subsequently was a student at Union Univer- 
sity at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He began the study of medicine after the close of his 
school days ; but after reading for a period of two years he abandoned the idea of a 
professional life. 

Mr. Raps began his business career at Courtland, Alabama, where he remained two 
years, and from there he^emoved to Nashville, where he was in active business until he 
came to Birmingham, in 1882. 



554 Jefferso7i Cotoity. 



In 1883, he opened his present place of business on First Avenue, where he has one 
of the finest establisliments in the city. 

Mr. Raps has invested liberally in real estate, the advance of which has assured 
him a handsome fortune. He is improving his property with substantial buildings, and 
has contracted for the erection of a handsome residence on the South Highlands, where 
he has one of the most desirable lots in that portion of the city. The business block 
erected by him on the corner of Avenue D and Nineteenth Street is one of the most 
imposing on the South Side; he also owns other valuable real estate. 

Mr. Raps is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and a citizen with progressive 
ideas and genial manners, which make him popular with all classes. 

Mr. Raps was united in marriage, May 10, 1883, to Miss Nellie Reilly, a native of 
Wisconsin. Two children have been born to them — Nellie R. and George, Jr. 



Solomoi} ^ui. 



E. Solomon and E. H. Levi are wholesale and retail dealers 
in wines, liquors, cigars, etc. They opened in Birming- 
ham in 1883, having come here from Cincinnati. Their place of business is known as 
the " Bank " restaurant and saloon, and occupies the most eligible business site in the 
whole city, being at a corner of Twentieth Street and First Avenue. They do a 
large and growing cash business. 

kaap R Hnrh<?tflr1fpr ^"^ ^"^"^ "^"'^ ^' ^^^"' '" ^^^y^"^- Mississippi. His 
IbddU IV. nUOlJbldULBl parents, Charles and Rosa (Rubel) Hochstadter, 

emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1845, and first settled in Jefferson 
County, Mississippi, engaging in the mercantile trade. In 1853 they removed to Phila- 
delphia, where they remained until 1872, and in 1873 became residents of Birmingham, 
where they remained until their deaths. 

Our subject graduated from the high school of Philadelphia in 1868, and in 1869 
began a mercantile career, at Okolona, Mississippi, in connection with E. Rubel, con- 
tinuing there until 1874, when he came to Birmingham, where he has been an active 
business factor since. Mr. Hochstadter was engaged in the dry goods trade until 1880, 
when he embarked in the wholesale and retail liquor trade in association with S. Wise. 
Since 1884 he has conducted his business alone. 

Mr. Hochstadter has taken an active interest in public affairs, having served as 
alderman nearly all the time since 1876, being elected by the people three times and by 
the board for several terms. He is also a director of the Alabama National Bank and 
of the Ice Company, and is president of several land companies and a director in 
others. He is amember of the A. F. and A. M., K. of P., and I. O. 0. F., and has served 
in an official capacity in the grand lodge of the I. 0. O. F. and K. of P. 

Mr. Hochstadter was married September 19, 1883, to Miss Carrie Lebolt, of Day- 
ton, Ohio. 

T A /giT 7s\y«, ►-, pf ^'^•'5 born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, December 2, 1844. 

(§) ^"^ ' Qj His parents were natives of East Tennessee, and were 

both of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, John Pomfret Long, wrote a history of Chat- 
tanooga, as it was in its early days. Both his great-grandfathers were revolutionary 
soldiers. He attended school at his home until he was fifteen years old, and in Novem- 
ber, 1859, went to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He was 
at Annapolis nearly two years, and then resigned to join the Confederate Navy in the 
spring of 1861, but continued his studies while in active service, and graduated from 
the Confederate Naval School in 1863. He was four years in the Confederate Navy. 



Biographical. 555 



He entered the former as a midsliipman and came out as a master. He was on the gun- 
boat Curlew, and then on the first ironclad ever built, the Richmond, the Savannah, 
and Albermarle, also ironclads. He took part in the sinking of the gunboat Yadkin by 
the last-named vsesel. He was next on the blockade-ruuner Owl, and then on the 
steamer Wren. His last engagement was at Plymouth, North Carolina. 

After the war he followed the profession of civil engineering, and was for eight 
years with the United States Government Engineers at Muscle Shoals, on the Tennes- 
see River; on the Tennessee and Coosa Canal ; Coosa River Survey; on the Missouri 
River, and the White River in Arkansas. A great part of the time since then he has 
been in the construction department of the Cincinnati Southern and Alabama Great 
Southern Railroads, and for short periods of time on various other roads. In January, 
1886, he was elected County Engineer of Jefferson County. 

November 20, 1872, he was married to Miss Fannie Walker, of Elyton, a daughter 
of W. A. Walker, Sr. To this union five children have been born — William Walker, 
John Pomfret, James Cosby, Jr., Mary Corella, and Crawford. 

As an interesting summary of Mr. Long's naval experience, it may be stated that 
he w;is in the battles of Roanoke Island, Hampton Roads, between the Monitor and 
the Merrimac, the first battle between ironclads, in which the Merrimac, the Confed- 
erate vessel, was victorious; also, Drury's Bluff, and Plymouth. 

Mr. Long is a Royal Arch Mason, and himself and Mrs. Long belong to the Presby- 
terian Church. 



(£e/^efa\ Skncliej. 



Innahhsn \l/ RsKR '® another citizen who has been a life-long resident 
J ' I ' ' within the limits of this county. He was born ten 

miles northeast of where Birmingham now is, January 30, 1837. His father, 
Andrew Bass, came from Anson County, North Carolina, and settled with the sub- 
ject's grandfather in Jefferson County, in 1816. His mother, Jane Montgomery, 
came from Tennessee with her father's family in 1820. She was by birth a \'ir- 
ginian. There were seven boys and two girls in the family. 

All of his early life was spent on the farm. He obtained his education near 
his home, and Ruhama, which, up to the founding of Birmingham, was the educa- 
tional center of this county. It was here that Jacob H. Baker, by common consent 
one of the ablest and most successful educators in this whole section of country, 
lived and taught many years. Young Bass, at the age of twenty-two, farmed one 
year, and then became a Confederate soldier, belonging to the famous cavalry regi- 
ment, the Eighth Alabama, under Colonel Clanton, of Montgomery, Alabama. He 
■was in the war from the beginning of 1862 to the close. He was never wounded 
or imprisoned during the whole time. What is quite remarkable is the fact that 
he was offered a lieutenancy but declined. Ho farmed one year after the war, and 
in 1866 was appointed revenue collector, and held the position up to 1870. From 
that time he had charge of various mail routes until the close of 1880. For the suc- 
ceeding six years he wa.s right-of-way agent for the Georgia Pacific Railway, and. 
was also extensively engaged in the land business. 



556 Jefferson County. 



In May, 1886, he became right-of-way agent for the Kansas City Railroad, and 
is now sustaining this relation to that road. 

He was married December 6, 1865, to Miss Ruteria T. Watson, at Cahaba Val- 
ley, who lived near Leeds, Alabama. He has nine children — Andrew Jackson, Jamea 
William, John George, Willis O., Hattie I., Thomas U. Green, Frank Alexander, 
Alice, and Trume Herbert Aldrich. Mr. and Mrs. Bass are both members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is also a Mason. 

Mr. Bass is essentially a man of peace. His motto is truly, "Peace, good will 
toward men." His hospitality and generosity are known to high and low. His 
doors are open to the wayfarer, and "the latch is on the outside of the door" to 
his friends. His spirit is progressive in every sense. A greater advocate of educa- 
tion is not to be found. He, with the assistance of a very few others, footing him- 
self at least fifty per cent, of the cost, has built a fine, comfortable academy at 
Leeds. He is head and front in every move for the development of his beautiful 
valley. A few more such men, and a few more brilliant families like his, and the 
cause of education will never lag behind in this end of the county. 

Pp PvATi7ci \^ W ^^^ '^°'^° '" ^^' Clair County, Alabama, May 14, 1853. 
. i. V^iUWC, iVl. U.y In his youth the schools were taught three months in 
the year, and after the crops were gathered. In this way he went to school until he 
attained his sixteenth year, and finished with the Ashville High School, when he was 
eighteen. He then read medicine under Dr. C. A. Crowe, of Moulton, Alabama, and 
attended the medical department of the University of Louisville, which he left in Feb- 
ruary, 1875. He then practiced successfully at Helena and Montevallo, Alabama. In 
1881 he again took medical lectures, and graduated in February, 1883. Since the fall of 
1883 he has been one of the practicing physicians for the Coalburg Coal and Coke Com- 
pany, at Coalburg, in this county. He stands well in his profession and does a lucrative 
practice. 

William P n7lM ^^^ born in Scotland, November 5, 1830. William's father was 
Illlllalll UOCllU James Gould, and his mother Jeannette Smith. 

He went to school in his native town until he was ten years old, and then went to 
■work in the coal mines at Sankertown. The same mines are being worked to-day that 
he worked in when a boy. He next worked in the mines at Verterville, and at the two 
places spent eleven years and nine months of his life. 

He sailed from Scotland September 4, 1852, and upon reaching America at once went 
to the coal region of Pennsylvania. He remained there about six months. Even at 
that early day he heard much talk of the Southern country, and saw an advertisement 
in the Philadelphia Sun for competent miners who were wanted at Tuscaloosa, Ala- 
bama. He made an agreement with three companions to go South, but all, save himself, 
abandoned the idea, as they believed the people down here were little better than bar- 
barians. He, however, started by himself, but stopped on the way in Clinton County, 
Pennsylvania, where he worked eight months, and then worked in the Swanton seam 
of coal, which was fourteen feet thick. After a short time, the miners struck for higher 
wages, and he went to New Creek, Virginia, and obtained a contract to deliver two 
thousand tons of coal. He returned to the Swanton Mines, in Maryland, after filling 
this contract. 

In October, 1854, he came to Alabama, and located at Tuscaloosa, and soon after his 
arrival he leased the coal mines, about ten miles from the town, from a gentleman by 
the name of Hewell, and soon found the people anything but barbarians. He made 



Biograpli ical. 557 



the first coke at these mines ever made in Alabama, in the 3'ear 1855. This was used at 
Leach's foundry. After six months he went to Montevallo, Alabama, in May, 1855, 
-and opened and worked the Alabama mines at this point for two years, and in July, 
1857, went to St. Clair County and took a contract from John M. Sims, of Talladega, to 
deliver ten thousand tons of coal. This coal was used principally for blacksmithing 
and household purposes. He was engaged here for three years, and then formed a 
copartnership with Jlr. Sims and opened the Ragland mines, on Trout Creek, about ten 
miles above Broken Arrow. This work was done with slaves, which he affirms was 
good and effective labor. In the first year of the war he stopped work at the mines 
and sold out his interest to Sims & Ragland in 1863. In the same year he sunk a shaft 
in the same place one hundred and thirty feet deep, and opened a slope four hundred 
feet deep. In 1865 Wilson's raiders wantonly burnt three thousand tons of coal which 
he had mined, which gave a halt to his operations for three months. He had bought 
1,700 acres of the contiguous lands, and in April, 1866, sold out his interest at a consid- 
erable profit. 

From this point he went to Selma, Alabama, and was engaged in the brokerage 
business for some months. By a commercial crash he was deprived of everything he 
had save a small body of coal land in Shelby County, near Brock's Gap. He developed 
this property, and engaged in selling coke and coal in various parts of Alabama, some 
of it being disposed of to the Shelby Iron AVorks. He remained here from 1867 to 1871, 
inclusive. 

From this point, perhaps, commences the most important part of his career. He 
prospected for one year and a half, and struck the celebrated Pratt vein of coal ; and 
while it was previously known, still it was his exertions and labors that first attracted 
attention to its splendid qualities as a steam and coking coal. He traced the vein from 
a point near Wheeling, Alabama, to Village Creek, near where the Laura Ensley Slope 
now stands. 

After another short period spent in prospecting, he opened the mines at Morris 
Station, on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and next opened the Jefferson mines, 
near by. This coal was the Black Creek seam. Both these mines were soon abandoned, 
the former on account of its inferior coking quality, and the latter because of the high 
stage of water in the east branch of the Warrior Kiver. 

He next prospected for the Black Creek seam, on the land owned by Mr. Brake, 
and succeeded in finding it. 

In 1877 he returned to the Pratt mines, and in partnership with H. T. Beggs, of 
Birmingham, began operations by making an opening about two hundred yards south- 
west of where No. 1 Slope now is. 

He had previously to this done some prospecting for the Eureka Iron Company, 
with a view to getting out iron ore for them, and had visited the coal mines at Helena, 
but soon discovered that the coal would not do to make iron. After finding out the 
excellent quality of the Pratt vein, he informed Colonel Sloss, then secretary of the 
Eureka Iron Company, of it, and of his purpose to open the mines. The former informed 
him of his willingness to build a railroad in order to save his furnaces. 

Mr. Gould had purchased a small tract of land near Slope No. 1, and at this 
juncture the Pratt Coal and Coke Company came on the scene and bought up 
all around him, thus closing him in. Under the circumstances there was but one sensi- 
ble course left him, and that was to sell out to this corporation. His ideas were correct, 
but lacking the financial ability to carry them out, he could not have acted better than 
he did. Could he have actualized his plans, he would beyond question have reaped a 
rich reward as the just tribute of his years of toil in the Alabama coal fields. Few men 



55^ Jefferson County. 



have shown greater devotion to their chosen work than Mr. Gould. He labored often 
with scarcely the necessaries of life to sustain him, so firm were his convictions that a 
great future was in store for the mineral region of Alabama. It is at least gratifying to 
him to know that he has lived to see verified the great industrial revolution wrought 
in the country where he has spent some of the most active and best years of his life. 

Mr. Gould is a simple, honest, and unpretentious Scotchman, and possessed of that 
sort of knowledge which makes him a most invaluable worker to any who may be so 
fortunate as to secure his services in anything that pertains to the development of any 
kind of mineral property. His accurate acquaintance with the minerals of Alabama 
will always make him foremost among those who attempt to speak authoritatively of 
them. 

A few years back Mr. Gould became interested in a fine body of iron-ore lands in 
Franklin County, Alabama, and during the year 1886 disposed of his interests witb 
considerable advantage to himself pecuniarily, a fact which all his friends will hear with 
every feeling of pleasure. 

He has reared a family of whom most all are now living, and who will share with 
him the satisfaction of knowing that his achievements have been far from being unat- 
tended with every element to make them always perennial sources of enjoyment. 

Mr. Gould now resides at Clements, Alabama, and it is to be hoped that rich; 
rewards are in store for his future. 

r» A'\hr"-\y>A hJ V '-^n/^1^ "Was born in Shelby County, near MontevallOf. 
J^aWara L . SI^QLCZU^ ^i^bama, in October, 1856. 

His father, James P. Lacey, was a Kentuckian, and came to Alabama with the sub- 
ject's grandfather and settled in Jefierson County in 1819, but removed to Shelby 
County in 1839. His mother, Ann Mclnnis, was a native of Alabama. 

There were seven children in the family, of whom he was the oldest. Like many 
other boys he spent most of his time working the farm, and went to school in the 
winter months of the year. The last school he attended was at Helena, Alabama, where 
he assisted in teaching several months. He then went to Pratt Mines, Alabama, and 
assisted in digging the foundation for the hoist engines at Slope No. 1, and for several 
months thereafter prospected for coal, and then returned to Slope No. 1, where he was- 
engaged in tramming coal, and enjoys the celebrity of taking the first mule down into 
that mine. He determined to study medicine, and went to Montevallo, where ho clerked 
in a drug store and devoted his leisure time to the study of his chosen profession. He 
came to Birmingham soon after, and wassimilarly engaged for some months. In the fall of 
that year he attended medical lectures at the Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, and continued to go until he graduated in February, 1883, and in the following 
March he went to Wheeling, Alabama, where he has since practiced with great success.. 
There is not in the bounds of JefTerson County a more popular professional man, and none 
more fully deserve it than he. He does the practice for the Woodward Iron Company, 
at Wheeling, Alabama, and has a much larger practice than many older than himself in; 
the profession. 

Dr. Lacey was married January 9, 1884, to Miss Maggie, a daughter of William Mor- 
ris, of Mobile, Alabama, for many years one of the most successful merchants of that 
city and at a former period a large coal dealer of Quincy, Illinois. To Dr. and Mrs.. 
Lacey, two children have been born — Philip and William. 

Dr. Lacy is a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society. 



Biographical. 561 



InnnA Dtiinn w^s born in Wales, August 22, 1847. His parents, James Price and 
IDdllu rill/u Kachel (Williams) Price, were born near the same place. From the 
time he was eleven until he was thirteen he worked in the coal mines, and a short term 
of service for the Great Western Railroad. He was naturally a bright lad, and his 
education was rather picked up than obtained by systematic training. He emigrated 
to America in 18G9, and went to Blossburg, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, where he was 
in the mines for seven months ; next at Lykenstown, where he made quite a reputation 
in putting out fires in the mines, and was made fire boss, and continued to work at 
Rouch Creek and Big Lick, in Pennsylvania, some years, which brought him up to and 
including 1881. He then went to the Rattoon Mountains in New Mexico, and was 
manager of mines there one year for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and 
with the exception of a few months' stay in Pennsylvania after this he has been in 
Jefferson County, since September, 1883, accepting at that time the position of 
inside manager of mines for the Coalburg Coal and Coke Company, the second largest 
coal mining company in the State. 

Mr. Price was married December 22, 1870, and has three children living. 

He has won a most desirable reputation as a skillful mining man, and is a useful 
citizen. He is a member of the Odd Fellows. 



Yu\\ in<'\^. 



Ig. (G\fJ '\r\'?\y>(^ ^^ vicissitudes, wanderings, and adventures make up an 
Y * ©) eventful career, then the subject of this sketch has just 

claims to such distinction. There has not been a single year of the twenty-two that he 
has been a citizen of America, in which he has not passed through wonderful occur- 
rences. 

Llewellyn W. Johns was born at Ponty Pridd, Glamorganshire, Wales, England, 
November 10, 1844. His father, William Johns, and his mother, Catherine Hopkins, 
were both natives of Wales, and his ancestors on the paternal side, for several genera- 
tions back, had followed the profession of mining engineer, and it was but natural that 
Llewellyn should adopt the same calling. His father having a large family, he left the 
calling of engineer, and engaged in speculation, in which he amassed a fortune of 
£50,000. He had enormous contracts to supply food-stuffs to the mines. In the great 
strike of 18.50. in the Rhonda Valley, involving forty thousand miners, he made a speech 
to six thousand people at the Cymmer bridge, in which he pledged himself to stand by 
the miners, as he did not think the reduction for digging coal just. Owing to bad debts 
contracted in this strike, he was never able to rally. 

Llewellyn was sent to school at Bath, England, to receive training as a mining 
engineer, in the Western Academy of that city, and after remaining there fifteen months 
was compelled to leave .school on account of the straitened circumstances of his father. 
He worked at the government chain works, at Ponty Pridd, and then in the mines. 
His health failing, he was compelled to quit the mines, and prepared himself to become 
an excise officer, but failing to get the necessary nomination from his member of parlia- 
ment, he was compelled to return to the mines. He worked as an ordinary miner, and' 
at other times as a skilled engineer. As he saw nothing but hard work and poverty 



^62 Jefferson County. 



;ahead of him, he determined to go to America. With this purpose in view he left 
home in his eighteenth year, went to Liverpool, and from there set sail February 
26, and arrived in New York on Good Friday. He took lodgings at a boarding house on 
Greenwich Street, and had one dollar and a half in his pocket. The following morning 
found him penniless, and in a strange city, among a strange people. He walked along 
the streets until he came to Central Park and met a surveyor, who was laying out blocks 
in the city, whose name was T. H. Tomlinson. He applied to him for work, telling him 
that he was willing to do anything, and that he understood how to do the work of an 
engineer. The first day he worked without food, and so capable did he prove himself 
that in two days he was left in charge of the work. At the end of a week he was given 
permanent employment with a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month. He 

-continued in this position three months, and then went to Allentown, Pennsylvania, 

;and worked on the Lehigh Valley Railroad building bridges, and subsequently to Wilkes- 
barre, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the coal mines during the winter. He next 
went to Chicago and worked for the Lake Shore Railroad building cars. He soon after 
went to Omaha, Nebraska, where he arrived penniless again. The Union Pacific Rail- 
road was then being built through that country, and he engaged to work with the bridge 
force, and was at Cheyenne until fall, and then went to Ogden and Salt Lake City, and 
remained in each place some little time. A great deal of excitement prevailed over the 
gold fields in Montana, and he hired himself to drive a team to Helena, in that terri- 
tory, a distance of three hundred miles. There were twenty -seven teams of eight oxen 
each in the wagon train. Arriving at his destination there was no work to be obtainedi 

-and he was again penniless. He succeeded in obtaining work, however, with an Eng- 
lishman, and continued with him during the winter. 

In thespringof the following year he went to the Placer Mines, in the Lost Chance 

•Gulch, and took an abandoned claim, and in a short time struck bed rock. In four months 
time he took out $15,000 in gold dust. At that time he formed a partnership with a saw- 
mill proprietor, for the purpose of building a flume, twelve miles long, and the firm put 
in bids for the work. Although the figures were enormously high, they secured the 
contract. The work was commenced at once with a large force of hands. After con- 
structing six miles of the flume the firm failed, and were unable to proceed further, and 
he was again penniless. He then walked to Deer Lodge, where he met a friend who 
gave him three dollars, and from this point he took stage to Pioche, Nevada, and arrived 
there in the midst of winter, and worked in the mines throughout the season. 

Amassing a few hundred dollars he went to Pennsylvania in 18118, and worked in 
the mines and built cars for the Honeybrook Coal Company. So rapidly did he rise 
in their favor that in a short while he was promoted to the position of mining and 
mechanical engineer, continuing until the fall of 1870, and then went to Lime Ridge, 
Pennsylvania, and worked six months with Major W. R. Thomas, a nephew of the great 
Samuel Thomas. 

Major Thomas informed liim of his intention to go South in the following spring for 
the purpose of building a furnace at Rising Fawn, Georgia. Six months after his depart- 
ure Captain Johns followed, and stopped at Warrior, in Jefferson County, and dug coal 
for Mr. J. T. Pierce, also building a number or chutes and a houise for him. After com- 
pleting this work he resumed his journey, and stopped at Birmingham in the fall of 
1872. This place was at that time in the gloom, misery, and desolation of the cholera 
plague. Arriving at Rising Fawn he took the contract to build the inclines and chutes, 
and, as soon as this task was finished, he was made superintendent of the mines, and 
■was occupied for some time in opening them. The coal proved to be worthless. 



Biographical. 563; 



The panic of 1873 coming on, the Rising Fawn Iron Company failed, owing their 
employees a large sum of money, himself individually seventeen hundred dollars. It 
was at this time that Senator Brown, of Georgia, came on the scene, and bought up the 
stock of the company, and succeeded in getting control of the property. Captain Johns 
finally obtained what was due him, but many of the employes were not so fortunate. 
For six months it was a serious matter with him to get even the most frugal necessities 
of life. 

In September, 1874, he married Jennie Scott, then a resident of Rising Fawn. She 
came from Durham, England, when eight years old. 

In the spring of 1875 he went to St. Louis, and then left for California, but on the 
way, hearing of silver mines around Virginia City, Nevada, he directed his course to^ 
that city. He arrived there with twelve hundred dollars, but work was scarce, and 
quarters to stay in and something to eat was next to impossible to obtain. This was 
owing to the fact the place was overcrowded. At first he secured work as a carpenter 
at five dollars per day. Always progressive, he soon became timber boss for the Ophir 
Mines, of which Captain Curtis, a popular mining man, was superintendent. Fortune 
favored him, and he soon rose to be assistant engineer of the mines. He accumulated 
a small sum of money, about two thousand dollars, which he put up as a margin in a 
purchase of fifty thousand dollars mining stock. Mackey, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien 
were then in their glory. There were many small investors, who, being called on for- 
money were unable to respond, and the whole troop of little fellows went down 
together, and the quartet above mentioned reaped a rich harvest. 

Mrs. Johns returned to Rising Fawn in the fall of 187.5, while Captain Johns held 
his position a year longer, and then joined his wife. Mr. James Thomas was then ia 
charge of the furnaces at Osmoor, and he engaged with him to go to Helena, Alabama,, 
and assume control of the mines there. It was here that the Oxmoor furnaces obtained, 
their supply of coke. Captain Johns took charge of these mines in 1877. Trouble soon 
arose between himself and Superintendent Hopkins, of the mines, and on the resigna- 
tion of the latter he succeeded him. While at Helena he opened the following mines : 
the Black Shale, the Little Pittsburg, and the Helena. While here he also built one 
hundred coke ovens. 

In the spring of 1879 Mr. H. F. DeBardeleben bought out these mines, and the 
company as then constituted was as follows: H. F. DeBardeleben, President; T. H. 
Aldrich, Superintendent ; J. W. Sloss, Secretary and Treasurer ; L. W. Johns, 
Mining Engineer. It was known as the Pratt Coal and Coke Company. 

From the fall of 1879 dates the most important undertaking of Captain Johns' 
career. This company having bought the property at Pratt Mines, he was appointed ta 
go there twice a week and superintend the opening of Slope No. 1. Captain William 
Gould had then driven the slope about one hundred feet. Upon examination this coal 
proved to be one of the finest in America. Captain Johns, finding that his duties were 
greatly enlarged, was compelled to move to Pratt Mines. The coal proving so superior 
he rebuilt the hundred coke ovens at Helena and ten additional ones at Pratt Mines. 

In ] 880 he commenced sinking Ellen Shaft, which was carried to a depth of two 
hundred and four feet perpendicular. Before completing this work he commenced sink- 
ing Slope No. 2, which was completed first. These two openings increased the output 
of coal two or three fold. From this time the destiny of Pratt Mines was assured. 
Next in order came the opening of two slopes and six drifts, and in the fall of 1885 the 
opening of the Laura Slope was begun, and has now been carried to a depth of more 
than a thousand feet. Long lateral drivings, known in mining parlance as headings,, 
have been extended to the right and the left for a great distance. It is one of the most 



564 Jeffersoti County. 



complete and best equipped mines in the South, and has no superior in the best mines 
of Pennsylvania. Competent judges say that it will afford profitable mining for fifty 
years to come. In September, 1886, the Enoch Slope was commenced, and is now being 
driven rapidly. It is near the above-mentioned mine, and is its equal in every respect. 

Captain .lohns has watched these stupendous works grow up around liim, and they 
stand as monuments to his skill as a mining engineer. Pratt Mines has, in tliis short 
time, grown from an insignificant village to be a thriving town of four thousand inhab- 
itants, and the great mining center of the South. From an output of a few hundred 
tons daily it now has three thousand, and capacity for twice that quantity. This is as 
much as the whole Birmingham district was capable of putting out two years ago. 
He has been one of the most important factors in all this great change, and the future 
will more fully reveal his important relation to the iron and coal center of the South. 

The narrow escapes alone of Captain Johns' career would constitute a small volume 
of most thrilling interest. Some of the most interesting are presented : 

While engaged in sinking a slope for the Honeybrook Coal Company, in Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1868, and while about two hundred feet down in the slope, it caved in, enclos- 
ing the whole party. Three were badly hurt, and the whole party were mined out 
after being buried alive fourteen hours. 

At Rising Fawn, in 1872, while driving a train of tram-cars out of the mines, he 
forgot to sprag the wheels of the car while passing a dangerous point. Perceiving his 
mistake, he jumped off the car for this purpose, and when he did so was caught 
between the train of cars and the wall of the slope, and was badly injured. It was 
four months before he recovered. Soon after regaining health he came near being 
involved in a far more serious accident. There was a long incline running from the 
mines to the Alabama Great Southern Railroad track. From the top to the bottom it 
was three-quarters of a mile long. He got on a tram-car and started down this, and 
when he had gone some distance the car got loose. Captain Johns jumped just in time 
to save himself, and stood and saw the car shattered into atoms. 

At Helena he passed through a number of narrow escapes from death. One day 
while at the Black Shale Mines he boarded the tram-car, and the engineer, not being 
aware of his presence, let it go fast, and lost control of it. He jumped off and fell by 
the man-way, and the large wire rope trailing behind the car beat on his person, bruis- 
ing him badly. 

At Williams & Savage's old mine the incline of the slope was thirty degrees, and 
was eleven hundred feet long. He started down it with a negro on a car, and when at 
the half-way point the wire rope broke, and the car went onward at a maddening rate 
of speed. Death seemed the inevitable fate. The car turned over and threw the two 
off, bounded back on the track, and was crushed to splinters at the foot of the slope. 
On another occasion at this same slope, while himself and Captain Pete Thomas were 
half-way down, it caved in, completely cutting off, as it seemed, all means of egress. 
Less skillful miners would have perished most miserably. They went into a cross- 
entry and dug out into the next room above, came into the main slope again, and 
made their way out. 

In 1882, while endeavoring to pump water on Village Creek with a fire engine, he 
had another most novel experience. There were four others beside himself working 
the engine, and when they had gotten up ninety pounds of steam it still refused to 
work, and the steam was raised to a hundred pounds, when it exploded, scalding one 
man and badly hurting two others. The engine passed immediately over his and Andy 
Kridler's heads. The latter was then his chief mechanic. 



Biographical. 565 



July 17, 1885, he, perhaps, had the most narrow escape of all. In company with 
Mr. J. G. Moore and Mr. William Faul, he went into the Rock Slope at the Ellen Shaft, 
where natural gas very frequently collected in large quantities. Perhaps there is no 
more forcible agent in nature than natural gas, and certainly none more dangerous. He 
had previously given instructions to have the gas blown out with compressed air, but 
they were not compiled with. He, ignorant of this, went into the slope with his com- 
panions, when suddenly himself and Mr. Moore were completely enveloped in flame, 
the gas exploding on coming in contact with their mining lamps. He fell to the earth 
face downward, and as he did so Moore exclaimed, " Oh, God, I am burned to death." 
He sprang to his feet and ran out, at the same time calling to Moore to hurry out before 
the second explosion occurred. They were both terribly burned, and the wonder is, that 
they had not sucked in the flame, and thus met a most painful death. Mr. Faul had not 
reached the explosion and thus escaped. Another trying ordeal was passed through by 
himself, Mr. J. G. Moore, and Thomas Turner, the two being his assistants at Ellen Shaft. 
There was no air passing through the mines, and he knew that the air-way was stopped 
up somewhere, and with them went in search of the trouble. At the bottom of Ellen 
Shaft there are lateral headings to right and left. Some distance to the right the air- 
course runs down one hundred and forty-seven feet. At the same point the Rock Slope 
runs slantingly down to the right at an angle of thirty degrees, and is three hundred 
and twenty feet long. The compressed air goes down this into the mines and returns 
through the course already mentioned. The foul air collects here badly, and soon 
creates an explosion. There were at that time eighty miners at work entirely ignorant 
of their impending fate, unless something was done to avert it. Their lives were in 
the hands of these three men, and all depended on their being able to find where the air- 
course was stopped. At last they found it, near the mouth of the air-shaft, the entry 
having caved at this point. In order to clear the debris away they had to hang over 
this shaft and work at it like Trojans. As they efTected an opening, the air shot through 
the mines with great velocity. A terrible explosion was thus prevented. 

While Captain Johns was timber boss at the Ophir Mines, near Virginia City, 
Nevada, he had with a force of hands timbered a mine about two hundred and fifty 
feet when the timber gave out. The men had gone on one hundred and seventy feet 
further cleaning away the rubbish. He heard a cracking overhead and called to the 
men to look out. They barely had time to escape before the whole of the latter caved 
in, which it took three weeks to clear away. The temperature of these mines was a 
hundred and fifty degrees, being hot enough to boil an egg. There were cooling stations 
in the mines to which the men were compelled to resort every twenty minutes. Had 
they been confined by this falling mass their deaths would have been equivalent to the 
torments of the damned. 

Thus ends a series of thrilling experiences the like of which not one in ten thou- 
sand is called upon to pass through. 

Captain Johns is a worthy and enterprising citizen, and his achievements are such 
that any one might feel a high degree of pride in being their master. No one has con- 
tributed more largely than he to the development of the Birmingham district, and has 
s. better knowledge of its vast resources or more confidence in its great destiny. 

To his indomitable energy and perseverance is due the comfortable fortune of 
which he is the possessor. He is the father of four sprightly children, and enjoys with 
them and Mrs. Johns the many blessings of life by which he is surrounded, and being 
yet in the vigor of manhood it is hoped that there are many years of happiness and 
usefulness allotted him. 



566 Jefferson Comity. 

T M TJ'. iQ. , If one, whose personal experience covers an almost unbroken 
^ . I I • e^ u. ^ » succession of forty-two j'ears' residence in Jefferson County, 
can entitle him to the distinction of more than an ordinary notice, then such may 
the subject of this sketch justly claim. 

John M. Huey was born in DeKalb County, Georgia, May 16, 1838, and in April, 
1844, while in his sixth year, his entire family emigrated from Georgia and settled on 
Mudd Creek, in the western part of Jefferson County. His father engaged in farming, 
and the virgin soil brought forth in abundance ; the people lived frugally but happily, 
and were in the strictest sense law-abiding citizens. 

Young Huey, while here, received his first training in the rudiments of education. 
In his tenth year he commenced going to school when the log schoolhouse was in vogue, 
and the white oak split or hickory withe was the popular ferule. The schools lasted 
only three months in the year, and during such times when the active work on the 
farm was suspended. 

In the fall of 1855 young Huey moved with his family to a point six miles south of 
Jonesboro, and was sent from there, October 1, 1858, to attend school under Professor 
McKinnon at Montevallo, Shelby County, which was then a flourishing village. 

During the winter of that year young Huey served as assistant engineer under 
Captain Fox, who was chief engineer, and had the contract to build the branch road 
from Montevallo to the Alabama mines, which were about two miles from the village. 
He served in this capacity one year, and then went to Ruhama and attended school 
under Professor Jacob H. Baker, who, by universal opinion, is said to have been one of 
the finest educators and most successful teachers ever in Jefferson County. Here his 
educational training ceased. 

From here he returned to Montevallo in October, 1860, and acted as station agent 
of the Alabama & Tennessee Railroad, which position he held six months, and accepted 
a position after this in the store of James Adams, a grocery merchant of Selma. 

In the fall of 1861 he went out as a volunteer in the Eighteenth Alabama Regiment, 
Company G, under Captain James Haughey, and after one year's service was appointed 
agent for the Confederate States Navy, with the rank of captain and a salary of two 
hundred and sixteen dollars per month. He served in this position until the war closed. 
His immediate superior was Commodore Farrand. His duty made it incumbent upon 
him to supply the navy with lumber and coal, the former to build ships and the latter 
to make steam. It became necessary for him to visit a large scope of country, and to 
his credit be it said that he served faithfully. The lumber and coal were both delivered 
at Selma, and at this point the latter was floated on barges to Mobile, which was then a 
coaling station. All the coal was then obtained in Shelby County, from the Alabama 
Mines, the Brown Mines, both near Montevallo ; the Woodson Mines on the Cahaba 
River ; Monk, Edwards & Company's Mines, near Helena ; and from several drifts 
below Helena on the above road. There were no mines thought of in Jefferson County 
at that time. 

During the battle of Selma, Captain Huey retreated as far as Marion, Alabama, in 
charge of a wagon train consisting of one hundred and forty vehicles. It took them all 
night to ferry across Cahaba River, and so great was the reflection of light from the 
burning of the doomed city that, at a distance of ten miles, the smallest objects could 
be easily seen. These events took place in the early part of March, 1865. 

In July, 1865, Captain Huey accepted a position with Monk, Edwards & Company 
as outside superintendent of mines and store manager. He held this position for one 
year, and then went to Selma as the shipping agent for the same company. He remained 
in this position until the company were ruined by a commercial crash. 



DiograpJiical. 567 



October 12, 1867, he was married to Annie E. IMcWillianis, whose father was a 
worthy citizen of Jefferson County. 

The newly-married pair took up their abode at their present home at Pratt Mines. At 
that time there was no excitement over coal and iron, and the surrounding country 
bore all the marks of frontier life. Deer, turkey, and other denizens of the forest 
strolled near the dwellings with perfect unconcern. Not even the earliest coal pioneer 
could then be heard of, and the vast wealth that lay dormant in the hills around was. 
not given a second thought. The subject of our sketch has lived to see a wonderful 
change take place, and the highest activity and progress supplant the perfect lethargy 
that then reigned. He has transacted within recent years some exceeilingly remunera- 
tive sales of mineral lantls, and is still a successful and reliable dealer in real estate and 
mineral lands. 

In 1886, in the county convention of Jefferson County, he received a flattering vote 
for the nomination to the lower house of the State Legislature. 

He is the father of a large, interesting, and happy family, and being in the greatest 
vigor of mind and body, is destined to achieve greater success in the future than he has 
in the past. 

John R (X\cC\7\r\l To few young men in the mineral district of Alabama has-. 
/ ' ' ' ^ '\ / ' the new order of things occurring since the war had a, 

more significant meaning than to the worthy and substantial heading to this sketch. 
To very few has it been more generous in the effect produced on their careers. This, 
could only be the result of the fitness of things. 

John B. McClary was born in IMcMinn County, Tennessee, February 4, 1857. His; 
mother was a Blackburn and his father Rufus McCIary, and both sustained high posi- 
tions in all the relations of life in those good ante-bellum days, when to be so circum- 
stanced was the stamp of the greatest worth. 

Young McClary's early life and boyhood were spent at his home. Being possessed 
of rare good common sense was the sure foundation on which his life's success depended, 
and he drew from it the inspiration of coming worthy achievements. His education 
was obtained at common schools and academies, and from the latter he hurried into the 
arena of active life, and from the age of sixteen to the age of nineteen he was engaged 
in clerking, and at the latter age he was a journalist for one year. At this time a com- 
mercial crash came on, and he, like many others, was aflfected by it, and while it seemed 
to him at that time a dark spot in his career, was nevertheless the pivotal point from 
■whence began the true success which has made him a man. 

This was in 1877, and he at once came to Helena, Alabama, and obeying the injunc- 
tion, " Whatsoever thy hands findeth to do, do it with all thy might," he began work in 
the coal mines as a common laborer, and after two weeks time he was promoted to be 
outside boss and timekeeper. He worked in this capacity until 1879, and was then 
with the Eureka Iron Company, at Oxmoor, Alabama, as outside manager. He per- 
sonally superintended the yartls, the shipments of iron, and received all the material 
for the furnaces. 

In 1881 he is found at Pratt Mines, and the trusted assistant of Superintendent 
A. W. Smith. While the personnel of the Pratt Coal and Mine Company has assumed 
many changes since then, it did not effect his promotion or advancement as such things 
usually do. He has continued to rise with the successive expansion which development 
has undergone since his connection with this great company. He has been, during this 
time up to the present, amenable to three different administrations, and they have all 
seen fit to recognize his capacity, and have reposed in him no small degree of confi- 

31 



568 Jefferson Co2inty. 



dente. As the just and fitting climax to this series of years of efficient service he was 
made assistant superintendent, during the time that Colonel Enoch Ensley, whose 
name is synonymous with development at the South, was president of the Pratt Coal 
and Iron Comi)any. From the time of his coming to Pratt Mines to the present it has 
grown from a small mining place to be the greatest mining center in the South, and 
from an output of several hundred tons of coal per day, has now a daily production of 
more than three thousand tons. He has gone on all this time progressing toward the 
full tide of success. 

In !March, 1887, Mr. McClary resigned his responsible position with the view of 
accepting a far more lucrative one of more extended proportions with another company 
of ample means and great progress, and should he decide to engage in this new field of 
labor his friends would naturally and confidently expect to see him signalize himself 
with the devotion to duty which has heretofore characterized his life. 

On th,e organization of the Ensley Manufacturing Company, which occurred but 
recently, he was chosen its first president. Thus do we see a young man, with nothing 
save his sterling worth to commend him, rising step by step until positions of trust 
and remuneration seek him, and not he them. Truly his career is worthy of all emula- 
tion. 

Mr. McClary, in the sense of office-seeking and office-holding, has eschewed politics. 
He is a true Democrat, and has always lent his efforts to promote the success of his 
party, and has been a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of Jefferson 
County for the past six years. 

In 1881 Mr. McClary was married to Miss Lucy, daughter of the late General P. H. 
Srittan, for many years Secretary of State of Alabama, and founder of the Montgomery 
Advertiser, one of the leading daily papers in the State. To this union two children 
have been born. 

Mr. McClary is a Mason, and is also a member of the Grand Lodge of Alabama of 
the Knights of Honor, of which he is Deputy Grand Dictator for the State. Thus do 
we find in the career of this young Southern a complete vindication of the young man- 
hood of the South. 

With his wife he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

\A/ ij\ VA^nC.fn'n ^'^'^"SS to the same family of Houstons who 

"^^* ^-^ \" «^ \ U lA,^ tu I L jjj.g gQ numerous in the Southern country. 
There is not a single Southern State in which some of this same great family are not 
found. Five of them have been governors, at different times, of as many different 
.States of the South, and there are many of them who have filled, at various times, posi- 
tions of honor and trust, both in the National and State Governments. In our own 
State the name of Houston is a household word, for Governor George S. Houston it was 
who relieved the State of millions of debt, and revived her energies in that period of 
misrule which preceded his inauguration in November, 1874. The Houstons, wherever 
found, are an enterprising and progressive race of people. 

Captain W. A. Houston is possessed of many of the characteristics of his stock. He 
was born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, July 14, 1832. His father, James R. Hous- 
ton, of Coweta District, and his mother, Nancy S. Hughes, of Abbeville District, were 
natives of South Carolina. They had moved to Tennessee soon after their marriage, 
and settled at the place above stated. The family continued to live here until William, 
the subject of our sketch, was four years old, and then moved to La Grange, Tennessee, 
■when, after a residence of two years, they emigrated to Marshall County, Mississippi. This 
portion of Mississippi was then characterized as the garden spot of creation, and such 



Biographical. 569 



appellation did it truly <losi'rve. The exuberance and abundance of growthsof all kinds 
was suggestive of the rank growths of tropical countries. The people, like their soil, 
were generous, kind, hospitable, and intelligent. Here young Houston passed his early 
years. 

In the fall of 1849 he entered the University of the State, at Oxford, Mississippi, 
which was then one of the leading universities of this country. His classical training 
here was of a high and thorough order. Judge Longstreet, the author of the famous 
Georgia Scenes, was, at that time, president of the institution, and Senator Lamar, now 
Secretary of the Interior, was the assistant professor of mathematics, and also a son-in- 
law of Judge Longstreet. Young Houston recited to the now honored secretary, and 
relates of him many pleasant things. He says that Professor Lamar made himself a per- 
fect companion of the boys, would attend dances with them, and enter with boyish 
delight into all their pastimes. He was thorough as a teacher, and popular among the 
boys. 

In July, 1851, young Houston terminated his college career. His father gave him a 
handsome property, and he commenced farming near the paternal residence, in Mar- 
shall County. His efforts as a farmer were liberally rewarded, and he pursued the call- 
ing successfully here for a number of years. November 10, 1857, he was married to Miss 
Alice L. Cotton, of Bastrop, Louisiana. 

In the latter's family, in its various branches, there are known to be ten thousand 
living at the present day. At a reunion in Philadephia a few years ago, where connec- 
tions of the family reside, the oldest living member and the youngest were presented to 
the other members of the connection. Bishop Green, of Mississippi, a gray-headeil octo- 
genarian, and a little child of infant years, were the two thus presented. 

After his marriage young Houston, with his youthful bride, went to Tennessee and 
took up his residence near La Grange, and engaged for a number of years very success- 
fully in farming. He continued to live here until the war closed. He lost heavily by 
the war, but saved twenty-tive thousand dollars from the wreck, with which he engaged 
in the mercantile business in La Grange, Tennessee, and continued in that business until 
1867. His debtors failing to pay him, he was financially ruined, having lost eighty 
thousand dollars in the brief space of two years. 

From 1867 to 1871 he spent in farming near La Grange, and in September went to 
^lemphis, and accepted a position with one of the leading grocery firms of that city as 
their traveling salesman. In the spring of the following year he connected himself with 
a large dry goods house of that city, and after three years' service with them became a 
trusted salesman of B. Lowenstein & Bro., also of Memphis, then the largest dry goods 
house in the South. He sustained a most important connection with this firm, and 
remained with them until December 16, 1883, when he severed his connecti(jn with them 
to accept a position with the Pratt Coal and Iron Company. He is the general manager 
of stores for the company, and fills a most important position, being one of trust and 
responsibility. His commercial transactions amount yearly to several hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Captain Houston hiw an interesting family, all of whom are now grown. Their 
names are — Robert E., Sophie L., Harry G., Annie M., Alice L., and Ethel D. Captain 
Houston is one of the most enterprising and progressive citizens of Jefferson County. 

S^ '\ OnrrPi*A '* '^ young Alabamian, who has been for some years closely 
r^@)* Is e; identified with the coal mining interests of North Alabama. 

He was born in Autauga, Alabama, November 22, 1856. At the age of six he com- 
menced going to school, and, from the time he was large enough, he worked on the 



5 "JO Jeffersmi County. 



farm three months in the year and went to school the rest of tlie time. This order of Hfe 
he kejit up until 1876. At the age of twenty he taught school five months at Cold Springs, 
near his home. For some time after he was an officer in the State Penitentiary, and 
built a portion of a branch road from Wetumpka to the Louisville & Nashville main 
line. From March 22, 1878, he was for a short time with the Newcastle Coal and Iron 
Company, and then made coke for the Eureka Iron Company, at Helena, Alabama, for 
a short time ; subsequently took charge of the prisons, yards, and commissary, and 
soon commenced his mining experience by being made pit boss, afterward becoming 
general manager of the mines under the Comer & McCurdy lease. He worked two 
hundred men until July 15, 1880. He then came to Pratt Mines, a short distance west 
of Birmingham, and still worked with Comer & McCurdy, who had contracts with the 
Pratt Coal and Coke Company. 

By far the most important part of Mr. Rogers' mining experience has taken place 
here. Since the above date he has built six and one half miles of railroad, opened 
Slope No. 2 and five drifts, and has superintended other important works for the com- 
pany. When the name was changed to the Pratt Coal and Iron Company he continued 
to work for the new company, and has proven himself a most capable, skillful, and 
worthy mining officer. Perhaps no young man in the State knows as much of Ala- 
bama's wealth in coal as he. He has passed through some most thrilling and trying 
experiences, but his course has ever been characterized by coolness, courage, and judg- 
ment. 

Mr. Rogers was happily married .lanuary 20, 18S1, to Miss Mollie P. Qoree, of Cold 
Springs. He has one child. 

^<-ir\oA (^ Mri/-ii*o was born near Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, August 
(g)OQeO V5\. I lOOre ig^go?. He was a farmer's boy, and spent most of his 
early life on the farm. At ten he commenced going to the county school, and went until he 
was fifteen. He worked on his father's farm until 1879, and ran a steam grist mill in Tus- 
kegee until 1880. He then accepted a position with the Newcastle Coal and Iron Com- 
pany, at Newcastle, this county, and then worked for the same company at Coal- 
burg in this county, and continued with them up to May, 1883. The Coalburg 
Coal and Coke Company then bought the property at Coalburg, and he stayed 
with the new corporation until November, 1884, and, after working alternately with 
both companies at Coalburg and Newcastle until June, 1885, he accepted a position with 
the Pratt Coal and Iron Company, at Pratt Mines. He has steadily risen to a place 
of trust and importance, and has under his supervision three hundred men, and, 
charge of one hundred coke ovens. 

Mr. Moore was married in 1885 to Miss Lulu Townsend, of Wetumpka, Ala. He is 
a Mason. 

I q) the age of three years he went to Liverpool, 

England, and his father here successfully engaged in the cotton business. The family 
resided there until 1863, when, on account of dullness in business, his father moved 
with his family to another part of England. 

From this date, young Hargreaves commenced the career which aftiTward proved 
so successful. He was sent to Harrow School, near London. This was a famous school 
for boys of all ages, and he entered it for the purpose of preparing himself for civil and 
mechanical engineering. His intention was cut short by the death of his father, which 
occurred in Liverpool, and he was thus compelled to leave school in the third year of 



Biogyaphical. 571 



his course, lacking two years of completing it. His father's ilcatli occurruil in ISlio, 
and threw on him the responsibility of supporting a mother, three brothers and three 
sisters. He proved himself equal to the occasion, and besides managed to save the fine 
homestead which his father left them. He entered the ofhce of Colston & Jones, lead- 
ing engineers of Liverpool, and by his application to duty attained the distinction of 
head draughtsman. He continued in this office until 18()9, and in the meantime gave 
his brothers and sisters educational advantages. 

In October, 1869, he emigrated to America, landing in New York, but soon returned 
to England. He was highly pleased with this country, and made up his mind to live 
here in the future. In 1871 he returned from England as the representative of the 
Whitewell Stove, and entered the office of Mr. Thomas Whitewell, the inventor, w'ho 
had an established office in Philadelphia. He found it difficult to introduce the stove 
at first, and Mr. Thomas Wetherbee was the first to put up this stove in America, at 
Cedar Point, New York. He assisted in the erection of four at this point, and subse- 
quently built four at Rising Fawn, Georgia, and from this time there was little trouble 
in introducing the stove, which he did extensively in Ohio, and eight for the Meyer 
Iron Company of St. Louis. In 1874 he traveled extensively in Europe, and visited his 
old home in Switzerland. He returned to .America in 1876, and represented Mr. White- 
well in behalf of his stove, in the metallurgical department of the Centennial Expo.'-i- 
tion. The gold medal wiis awarded this stove. 

In December, 1876, young Hargreaves settled at South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and 
built two one hundred-ton furnaces for tlie company which founded the town. From 
this time dates his career as a furnace builder. In 1881 he came to Birmingham and 
erected two seventy-ton furnaces for the Sloss Furnace Company, and immediately after 
this an eighty-ton furnace at Citico, Tennessee, as assistant to Major Doud, and then a 
similar one at Hanging Rock, Ohio. He then went to Dayton, Tennessee, and built two 
one hundred-ton furnaces, which occupied a part of 1885 and 1886. In the fall of the 
latter year he returned to Birmingham, and engaged with the Pratt Coal and Iron Com- 
pany to put up four one hundred and fifty-ton furnaces and sixteen Whitewell stoves, 
whicli involves an outlay of twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is the 
largest single enterprise with which he has ever been associated, and when completed 
will be one of the finest plants in America. 

October 1, 1882, Mr. Hargreaves was married to Miss Onie Green, of Birming- 
ham. Their happiness, however, was cut short by the death of the latter, which sad 
event took place February 20, 1885. October 9 he was married the second time, to 
Miss Iraogene Green, a sister of his first wife. Both of these ladies are daughters of 
Mr. T. X . Green, for a long time po.stmaster of Birmingham. 

GH HqpT'IO ^^^ born in Davidson County, Tennessee, November 15, 1852. He 
I III Hull id passed his early years on the farm, and is the olde-st child in a family 
of ten by his father's third wife. His father, Mr. T. A. Harris, had emigrated to Ten- 
nessee when quite a young man, and his mother, Eliza Felts, was a native of Davidson 
County. He remained on the farm until 1871. He was too young to serve when 
the war commenced, but having two half-brothers in Hood's army, spent a part of the 
year 1865 with them when the army passed through Tennessee. He was then not a 
stranger to what actual warfare was. Indeed, his home was a refuge for sufferers from 
both Sides on a number of occasions. 

What education he received was at the district school near his home, and was there- 
fore not the best, but this was made up for in a great measure by his natural good sen.se. 
In the spring of lS7o he went to Nashville, and under Mr. James Haslam learned the 



572 Jefferson County. 



trade of stonemason, and at the end of two years was prononnced a competent work- 
man. He remained at Nashville taking small contracts on his own responsibility until 
1878. He then accepted work under the city government, and continued with them 
five years, during which time he lost only eighteen days. In 1883 he accepted the 
position of marshal of Tracy City, Tennessee. It had many desperate characters in it, 
and he had a narrow escape in the attempt to arrest a drunken desperado who was 
sheriff of the county at the time. He accomplished the arrest and brouglit the offender 
to justice. After a stormy career of three months he resigned tliis position, but not 
until he had quieted the turbulent elements and left the city enjoying the fruits of good 
government. 

After this he built one hundred and thirty-four coke ovens for the Tennessee Coal 
and Iron Company. It was here tliat he introduced his patent oven by which he was 
enabled to make coke in one half the time required by any other oven. He experi- 
mented with it successfully here, and with future study will bring it to a state of per- 
fection. The idea was taken from an English oven introduced by Mr. Warner, of Nash- 
ville. 

April 15, 1886, Mr. Harris began to build for the Pratt Coal and Iron Company 
seven hundred and twenty coke ovens, involving an expenditure of about two hundred 
thousand dollars. In their construction were used: 19,800 cubic yards of stone, 
240,000 cubic yards of earth, and 3,750,000 brick. This is, therefore, an important testi- 
mony to his skill as a fine workman. 

He was married to Miss Laura Haslam, daughter of James Haslani, July 'i\, 1875, 
in the city of Naishville. 

/Tr„„J-^* ■LP "LP 0;PP was born in Gettysburg, Penn.sylvania, February 

CSapHaiQ eH. eM. ie)ltrt ^^ ^.j^ ^.^ fatLr was LeonL Dill, and his 
mother Mrs. Elizabeth Gilbert, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. At the 
age of fourteen young Dill left the parental roof and was a clerk in a hardware store in 
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and worked there three years. 

On the death of his father, his mother moved with his half-brother and several sis- 
ters to Tennessee. This emigration of the family occurred in 1831, during the spring of 
the year. They lived with George Gilbert, a half-brother. The family lived here four 
years, and in 1835, with his mother and sisters, he moved to Athens, Tennessee, which 
was on the confines of the Indian Nation, an Indian agency being near. Young Dill 
possessing almost herculean strength, the frontier feature of life pleiused him. He was 
very popular with the Indians, whom he treated with justice in all the dealings he had 
with them. Frontier brawls and murders were numerous, and the Indians who were 
divided from the whites by the Hiawassee Kiver, were treated with injustice by many. 
A noted organization of that time was the Pony C!lub. It was. composed of men who 
made it a business to defraud the Indians of their ponies, and then take them to the 
States and dispose of them at a great profit. The Indians upon whom these depreda- 
tions were practiced were the noted Cherokees. It was not until 1837 that they were 
moved to their reservation in the Indian Territory. 

In the fall of the year 1847, young Dill went to the Mexican War in Colonel Wil- 
liam Haskell's Second Tennessee Regiment; after twelve months he was made second 
lieutenant of his company. In 1843 he returned home, raised Company H, of the Fifth 
Tennessee Regiment, and after nine months' service as captain of this company returned 
home, peace having been declared. He then took up his residence at Calhoun, Tennes- 
see, and clerked in the store of his brother-in-law, B. F. Martin. May 19 he was mar- 
ried to Nancy Rogers, daughter of an old and respected resident of Calhoun. 



Biographical. 



In 1862 he went into the Confederate service althougli an opponent of secession. 
He raised a company of eiglity men and was elected captain. Reserved in this capacity 
one year, and tlien resigned and refused to accept office on account of his objection to 
the passage of and operations of the conscript law. 

Prior to tiie war he was a conductor on tlie East Tennessse & Georgia Railroad ; as 
mail agent between Dalton and Knoxville, and then Bristol and Chattanooga, and was 
finally transferred to the Jlemphis & Charleston, and ran between Chattanooga and 
Memphis. He resigned this position May 1, 1861, as President Lincoln issued a procla- 
mation to discontinue pay to all Southern Route Agents on May 31. The Government is 
still owing him the month's pay for April. 

Some years after the war Captain Dill moved to Alabama, where he has since resided. 
In 1880 he assisted in taking the first census of Birmingham. All that portion of the 
city east of Eighteenth Street was assigned him, and the remaining part of the city 
west of it was a.ssigned to Samuel Thompson, of Birmingham. In the former district 
there were 2,.32o people and in the latter 760, thus making 3,083. 

Captain Dill now resides with his son at Pratt Mines, where he also has a num- 
ber of married daughters living. He is surrounded by his children and grandchildren, 
and finds in them solace for the loss of his devoted companion, whose death <:iccurred 
November 6, 1874. He is now well nigh fourscore, and looks back with satisfaction 
over his eventful career. 

D rn (P;inninrtha/TV w^s born at Mount Hope, Lawrence County, Alabama, 
'V /'«• \Ui;i;il^<^yd/n August 25, 18o5. He lived on a farm until seventeen 
years old. His father, like many others, was ruined financially by the war, and the 
first six years after the war he worked on the farm, and with his father, on a sixty-acre 
one, paid all of the former's old debts. He obtained his education at the country 
schools. Educational opportunities were, therefore, meagre, but he was possessed of 
unusual native intellect. In his eighteenth year he commenced teaching school at 
Ecklebeyer's Schoolhouse, in Lawrence County. He continued to teach and work on 
the farm until 1871, and in March of that year he began the regular study of medicine 
at Mount Hope under Dr. John M. Clark, a distinguished johysician of North Alabama. 
By the revenue from teaching and a cotton patch he accumulated enough to take his 
first course of lectures at the medical department of the University of Louisville. He 
commenced the practice of medicine as an under-graduate in March, 1875, at Newburg, 
Franklin County, and from the beginning he w:is phenomenally successful, and hi.s 
practice lucrative. 

Dr. Cunningham was married to Miss Su.san L. Moore, daughter of Hon. John E. 
Moore, of Franklin County, August 13, 1876. 

In the winter of 1878-79 Dr. Cunningham took a course of medical lectures at Bclle- 
vue Hospital Medical College, New York, and graduated in March, 1879. He then 
resumed practice at Newburg, where his usual success attended him. 

In August, 1880, he went before the people of his county as a Democrat for the 
legislature, and was elected by a plurality of three. With himself there were six can- 
didates in the field. The question of the removal of the courthouse was then. being 
agitated. He canvassed the county thoroughly, with the result already stated, and his 
election was due entirely to his personal popularity. As a legislator his course was 
characterized by conservatism and economy. He voted against all measures calculated 
to bring about a useless expenditure of the people's money. He served on the commit- 
tees on fees and salaries, and temperance and public institutions. Personally he was a 
strong advocate of temperance and prohibition. 



574 Jcffeison CotDiiy. 



In March, 1881, he was appointed by the Hon. John H. Bankhead penitentiary 
physician, and moved to Wetumpka to live. In addition to his official practice he built 
up a large outside practice. He remained there until June, 1883, and then moved to 
Pratt Mines, six miles from Birmingham. This was done in accordance with the 
new law, then recently passed, which required the penitentiary physician to reside 
where there were the greatest number of convicts confined. It became necessary to 
look carefully into the condition of health prevailing among the inmates of the 
prisons. This labor he performed admirably. It was his duty to render monthly 
reports to the warden of the penitentiary. In the reports of 1883 and 1884 he stated 
what he thought was the cause of the prevailing sickness among the convicts, and 
made such suggestions as he thought necessary. They were at once acted upon, 
and a most wholesome change was wrought. When he entered this service the 
death-rate among the convicts was 18 per centum per annum, and when the report 
was made for October, 1884, it was at the rate of 2.S3 per centum per annum. These 
reports were very exhaustive, and besides containing a vast amount of useful infor- 
mation were the first official scientific reports relative to the causes of deaths among 
the inmates of State prisons. 

Dr. Cunningham continues to reap success as a medical man. He is popular 
with all who come within the reach of his acquaintance. He is young and vigor- 
ous, and has every prospect for a bright future. 

JC7 T<^TnOtf ^^® horn February 10, 1850, in what was then Shelby County, 
• >-^' g)^H now included in Jefferson County, Alabama. The death of his 

father, in 1853, left his mother and four children in very straitened circumstances, 
hut the boys were industrious, and managed to make a comfortable living. His oldest 
'brother went to the war in 18(i3, and threw upon our subject the necessity of looking 
after the support of his mother and the younger children. He learned to write at home, 
and to read while a Sunday school scholar. He continued his educational training 
under Professor I. W. McAdory, at Pleasant Hill, Alabama, and at several other places 
in the State, and then finished at Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee. He 
paid his own expenses for his entire schooling. The degree of A. M. was conferred 
upon him after leaving school. He taught school two years, and then commenced 
the study of medicine at Mobile in 1876, and at the same time took a special course in 
pharmacy. In the winter f)f that year he graduated in pharmacy. In 1878 he com- 
menced the practice of medicine at Helena, Alabama, and stayed there until the fall of 
1880. In addition he carried on a mercantile and drug business. In February, 1881, 
he came to Pratt Mines, and secured a large contract practice from the Pratt Coal and 
Iron Company, and has been successful in an eminent degree since that time. He has 
paid off' a heavy indebtedness, and has accumulated a comfortable sum of money. In 
the fall of 1884 he took a course of medical lectures at Tulane University, in New 
Orleans, Louisiana, and graduated in the spring of 1885. 

He was married October 14, 1880, to IMiss Josie A., daughter of Mr. Hugh Morrow, 
of Trussville, Alabama. To this union one child, Hugh, has been born. 

Dr. Jones is an Odd Fellow and ^lason, and himself and IMrs. Jones are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 



Biographical. 575 

"\ M On-P-P ^^''* burn in Anderson County, Tennessee, June 30, 1S61. His 
<§)* * r 1 mother at the time was on a visit to his grandmother, and had he 

been born at his home he would have been an Alabamian. When lie was six months 
old his mother returned to Alabama. His father was W. H. Naff, whose sketch appears 
elsewhere in this volume. His mother was Miss Sarah C. Westbrook, of Tallapoosa 
County. Most of his early life was spent in Elmore County, and he was educated by 
his father, who for years was a most successful and skillful educator. When not 
engaged in going to school, he assisted his grandfather, Mr. J. C. Westbrook, now of 
Birmingham, but then extensively engaged in business in Elmore County. He thus 
continued to spend his life until the fall of 18S3, when he attended medical lectures at 
the Vanderbilt University, from which institution he graduated in the spring of 1885. 
He practiced medicine in Birmingham for one year, and then located at Pratt Mines, and 
besides doing considerable private practice, is associated with Drs. Jones, Cunningham, 
and Brown, in the company practice of the Pratt Coal and Iron Company. 

Dr. XafT is a physician of much worth, and possessed of those qualities both of 
character and mind which will make him very successful. 

He was married on May 21, 1885, to Miss Nina, daughter of Mr. Marion May, 
who resides near Birmingham. 




576 Jefferson Conniy. 



ADDEiNDA TO SECRET SOCIETIES. 

[This article Ijelongs under the head of Serret Societies, but was received too late to be 
inserted in its proper place.] 

Division No. 156, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. — This 
Division was organized October 8, 1881, with three charter members, 
consisting of Thomas G. Simpson, W. K. Rosser, and W. H. Hughes. 

The brotherhood grew very fast, and no doubt struck a popular chord 
in the hearts of all the engineers then living in Birmingham. This, no 
doubt, was due to the necessity they felt for the organization of those fol- 
lowing their hazardous, responsible, and worthy calling. In proof of the 
growth of the order we have but to submit the fact that, soon after the 
above date, we find an election of officers taking place with the following 
result : 

Thomas G. Simpson, Chief Engineer; Samuel H. Nance, First En- 
gineer ; W. C. Bentley, First Assistant Engineer ; David Archer, Second 
Assistant Engineer; W. M. Brown, Third Assistant Engineer; John B. 
Robinson, Chaplain ; John H. Cox, Guide. 

From this time the usefulness and continued growth of the Brother- 
hood was assured, and since this first election of officers annual elections 
have taken place regularly. Below is seen the result of each by years : 

August 13, 1882: Thomas G. Simpson, Chief Engineer, Secretary and 
Treasurer ; W. M. Brown, First Engineer ; George Nichols, Second En- 
gineer ; Thomas Jeffers, First Assistant Engineer ; David Archer, Second 
Assistant Engineer ; Edward Chappel, Third Assistant Engineer ; John 
McCarty, Chaplain ; John H. Cox, Guide. 

August 12, 1883: Thomas G. Simpson, Chief Engineer ; W. M. 
Brown, First Engineer; Robert Allen, Second Engineer; H. B. Jones, 
First Assistant Enginneer ; Thomas Jeffers, Second Assistant Engineer; 
W. T. Ferguson, Third Assistant Engineer ; John Berry, Chaplain ; J. M. 
Brown, Guide. 

August 10, 1884: Thomas G. Simpson, Chief Engineer ; C. E. Slade, 
First Engineer ; R. H. Fittman, Second Engineer ; George C. Allen, 
First Assistant Engineer ; James M. Craker, Second Assistant Engineer ; 
C. B. Spencer, Third Assistant Engineer ; John Berry, Chaplain ; John 
O'Guynn, Guide. 



Secret Societies. 577' 

August 9, 1885 : Thomas G. Simpson, Chief Engineer; C. E. Slade, 
First Engineer ; H. B. Jones, Second Engineer; George G. Allen, First 
Assistant Engineer ; James M. Craker, Second Assistant Engineer ; S. H. 
Hulen, Third Assistant Engineer; R. H. Pittman, Chaplain; John* 
O'Guynn, Guide. 

August 5, 1886: James T. Hayes, Chief Engineer ; James M. Craker,. 
First Engineer ; John O'Guynn, Second Engineer ; George C. Allen, 
First Assistant Engineer and Secretary of Insurance ; J. M. Erwin, Second'. 
Assistant Engineer; J. W. Green, Third Assistant Engineer; Samuel H> 
Nance, Chaplain ; R. H. Pittman, Guide. 

From the small beginning of three members the Division had grown up 
to the last election of officers to have a membership of sixty-nine mem- 
bers, including officers. At present it has nearly a hundred, and the roll 
of membership for that date, exclusive of officers, stood as follows : J. A^ 
Achor, J. H. Achor, T. W. Atkins. E. W. Allen, W. E. Augur, Jr., W._ 
M. Brown, J. M. Brown, John Berry, W. C. Bentley, VV. T. Gary, J. H. 
Cox, J. H. Garden, Edward Chappel, W. B. Craker, VV. S. Cooper, DanieL 
Conniff, J. J. Crogan, Samuel Dodd, W. H. Evans, W. C. Grant, J. M. 
Bradley, Thomas Harbin, John Barrett, S. H. Hulen, W. H. Hughes, F.. 
Y. Hall, J. C. Hunter, C. Jones, J. M. Jenkins, J. J. Kennedy, G. W. 
Kaley, J. Loveless, D. Lyle, J. W. Long, James McKay, John McCarty, 
John McDonough, George Nichols, F. Northcutt, Samuel Orr, R. J. Orr, 
J. C. Pace, W. S. Pape, W. R. Robinson, W. K. Rosser, T. G. Simpson,. 
A. E. Simpson, C. B. Spencer, C. E. Slade, E. A. Searson, R. J. Samuels, 
T. P. Swinford, J. R. Swinford, S. E. Smith, W. Sturdivant, E. R. Wells, 
Dave Watts, George Willacy, James Willacy, Wm. Wright, and F. A. 
Woods. 

The nature of the duties devolving on the members of all Brother- 
hoods of Locomotive Engineers is the surest means of determining the 
important relations they sustain to society, commerce, and the general wel- 
fare of mankind. The invention and use of the locomotive is one of the 
most powerful agencies of modern development, and at the same time the- 
most rapid promoter of civilization. With the immense traffic of the world, 
that is now going on with gigantic proportions the locomotive holds an 
equal place with the steamship. As the one is absolutely indispensable to- 
commerce on the waters, so the other is an absolute essential to commerce 
on the land. These are patent facts and need no demonstration. 

Again, taking another view of the question, we cannot but be aware 
of the courage, devotion to duty, and responsibility devolving upon each. 
individual member of every division of the Brotherhood. There is not an. 



578 Jefferso)i County. 

hour in which the lives of hundreds, nay thousands, of individuals are not 
in their keeping, and it is to be said in great praise that except in rare 
instances they have shown themselves entirely worthy of trust. This point 
cannot be better expressed than in the words of P. M. Arthur, Grand 
Chief Engineer of the National Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, in 
his annual address to the convention assembled in New York City in 
October, 1886. Speaking of the members in general terms, he says: 
"Possessed with the abilities which birth and education have given us, witli 
a spirit which shirks the performance of no duty, with a hand which scorns 
no honest labor, with a bravery which fears no defeat, let us pursue our 
way in life inspired with the determination to succeed." These words find 
■constant verification in the case of the individual members of Division No. 
156. They have shown themselves throughout the years of Birmingham's 
growth to be possessed at all times of all those manly qualities which dis- 
tinguish the best men of other callings, and it is needless to say that the 
citizens of this matchless city of the New South are according them places 
among her best and most worthy men. 

It is a principle with the order everywhere to attend strictly to their 
own affairs, and extend a helping hand to other labor organizations when 
nothing remains to be done for the furtherance of the good of their own 
order. They believe that the aid they extend through worthy examples is 
the surest means of assisting others, and that every household has suffi- 
cient to do in looking after its own affairs. 

Strikes are deemed by them to be the dernier resort, as a means of 
the settlement of questions of disagreement. In support of this we again 
recur to the words of Mr. Arthur: " Labor must have its just rights and 
a fair return for its service. The whole country will insist on achieving 
this result. Also, it will insist on the proper remuneration of capital. 
The sense of fairness among the people will see that all sides are dealt 
with equitably and justly. Moderation and arbitration are the two great 
instrumentalities to be used. Capital and labor are ripe for the adjust- 
ment. " The same authority also insists, and very sensibly too, tliat there 
is no real antagonism between labor and capital. Quoting again, we find 
him to use the following manly words : " No one will justify oppressions 
complained of by candid and industrious workmen. The simple state- 
ment of their case will command public sympathy and approval. On the 
other hand, the public at large will condemn the willful destruction of 
property and the interruption of business. There is room enough for 
everyone in a country like this, and every man disposed to work must be 
allowed to find the chance. The workingman of to-day may be the capi- 



Secret Societies. 579. 

talist five or ten years from now. He is interested in the considerate 
and friendly adjustment of all industrial questions. Capitalists and corpo- 
rations are equally interested in the settlement to be hoped for. There 
can be no long antagonism. While the great problems touching capital 
and labor are under consideration, forbearance must be practiced, and a 
willingness must be shown by the employers of labor and by workingmen 
themselves, to settle all existing troubles in a frank and manly manner. " 

These are no less the words of the eminent authority quoted than 
they are those of this division. They believe them to be true, and 
endeavor to make them the rule of their action and conduct. 

This is one of the most powerful labor organizations in the United 
States, and one of the most sensibly conducted. There were, in the year 
1886, three hundred and twenty-one divisions throughout the country, 
comprising a membership of nearly twenty thousand, well organized and in 
a prosperous condition. A most important feature of the organization is 
the insurance association. Quoting from Mr. Arthur, we obtain the fol- 
lowing facts as affording the best insight into its workings: "We had at 
the close of the last fiscal year, August 31, 1885, four thousand, two hun- 
dred and forty-two members; died during the year, seventy-seven; dis- 
abled, two; forfeited, three hundred and one; and had on August 31, 
1886, four thousand, four hundred and forty-four, showing a net gain of 
two hundred and two. We have paid seventy-seven claims of three 
thousand dollars each, aggregating the sum of two hundred and thirty-one 
thousand dollars, making a grand total of one million nine hundred and 
eighty-five thousand and sixty-nine dollars, and sixty-one cents, paid to 
the widows and orphans of deceased members." The national organ of 
the Brotherhood is published at Cleveland, Ohio. The editorial staff is 
composed of P. M. Arthur, Grand Chief Engineer ; T. S. Ingraham, 
First Grand Chief Engineer; H. C. Hays, First Grand Assistant Engin- 
eer. Its object is best expressed in the words of Mr. Arthur: "To the 
members the ' Monthly Journal ' brings full information concerning the 
works of our order and the progress and doings in the various divisions." 
It contains, in addition, choice literary and scientific reading matter, and is 
a powerful aid in the promotion of harmony and good-will between the 
factors of production, labor, and capital. 

It is composed of men who have devoted untiring energy to the pro- 
motion of all Birmingham enterprises, and many of them have profited 
very largely by her splendid growth and development. There is no asso- 
ciation in Birmingham that she feels prouder of than Division No. 156 
of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. 



JSk^ P(o;^CCy Ivof^H/lakfyj- 



f\T)d Iroi) Ipt^rests. 



T. T. HILLMAN. ENOCH ENSLEY. 

HOT BLAST FURNACES. 
COAL AND ORE MINES. RAILROADS. 

TOWNS, VILLAGES, ETC. 



CHAPTER X 



Thomas T. Hillman was born near Clarksville, Montgomery County, 
Tennessee, at the old Marable Homestead, February 2, 1844. 

His ancestral history is an interesting one, and almost coeval on this 
continent with the settlement of America, but its chief interest comes 
from the intimate connection of the name of Hillman with the subject of 
iron-making, particularly in the South. 

Glancing back to the earliest time of which there is any authentic 
record of the Hillman family, we find that the father and mother, from 
whom came all the members of this family, were Hollanders, and first came 
to America about five generations ago, or more than a century from the 
present date. This couple landed in Philadelphia, and, among the most 
interesting things connected with their life in the then primitive Philadel- 




./^, J^: /^.- 



The Pio7iee7- Iron-Makers ajid Iron Interests. 583 

phia, was the purchase by Mr. Hilhnan of a tract of land consisting of 
twenty acres now in the very heart of the city. It is bounded by Chest- 
nut, Walnut, and Seventh Streets, and by the Delaware River. Among 
other notable buildings standing at present on this property are the Con- 
tinental Hotel and the United States Bank. In consequence of the return 
of Mr. Hillman to his native land, and death there, this land was sold for 
taxes, but subject to redemption any time within the following ninty-nine 
years. A son of Daniel Hillman went to Philadelphia in 1840 or '41, and 
with two of his brothers, George and Charles, employed counsel to inves- 
tigate the matter, but it was found that one hundred and two years had 
•expired since the tax sale had taken place, or just three years more than 
the limit allowed for the redemption of the land. 

Mr. Hillman was engaged in the dairy business during all of his life- 
time in America. He was recalled to Holland by the death of a son and 
•daughter, and some months after his return died. His wife continued in 
the dairy business up to the time of her death. 

Three sons, James, Daniel H., and George, survived this union, and 
■each of them reared families. 

James and Daniel H. for some years carried on the wagon and black- 
smith business at Trenton, New Jersey. Daniel H., in copartnership with 
a party by the name of J. L. James, built a forge for the manufacture of 
iron near Valley Forge, New Jersey, in 1814, but it was soon afterward 
washed away by a big freshet on the stream where it was situated, when 
Mr. James took a precipitate departure, leaving all the debts to be paid by his 
•partner. In New Jersey, in those days, the law inflicted imprisonment for 
debt. Daniel H. owned, near Barnegat Bay, a farm, store, schooner, 
and ship. These he surrendered to satisfy the indebtedness of the firm, 
and went to New York. This was in the year 1816. He left his wife and 
children in New York and went to Chillicothe, Ohio, then the capital of 
the State. He built a forge on Paint Creek for the manufacture of ham- 
mered iron. In the following year, 1817, his family, consisting of wife, 
four sons and one daughter, joined him in his new home. The names of 
his children were Daniel, the oldest, who was born in Trenton, New Jersey, 
February, 1807; Jane, James, George W., and Charles E. The mother 
•of these children was Grace Huston. 

There being no railroads then in the United States, his family traversed 
this great distance in wagons. 

Daniel H. Hillman ran this forge for two years, and then moved to Bath 
•County, Kentucky, in 1822, and built and operated a number of forges up 



584 Jeffeison Coiiiity. 

to the year 1827, when Mrs. Hillman died. The last place at which he 
worked was near Greenupsburg, Kentucky, forLevenS. andT. T. Shreeves. 

During the stay of Daniel H. at this place we have the first mention 
of his son Daniel (the father of the subject of this sketch), in connection 
with the important industry which the former had so faithfully fostered. 
Young Hillman assisted his father in securing coal and in the shipment of 
iron to Cincinnati, Ohio, by flatboats. He was then in his nineteenth 
year and went to the steam furnace of L. S. andT. T. Shreeves, in Greenup 
County, Kentucky, and managed the coaling ground. He stayed with them 
two or three years, and was promoted to be bookkeeper and manager. 

His father, on the death of Mrs. Hillman, broke up housekeeping and 
went to Hanging Rock, Ohio, where he managed the Pine Grove Steam 
Furnace. He remained there some little time and then returned to Greenup 
County, Kentucky. In 1830 he went to New Orleans, and thence to 
Mobile, Alabama, in company with Dr. J. Goodrich and Casting Good- 
rich, and subsequently to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. 

The following letter from Mr. Hillman to his son George affords an 
interesting insight into the condition of things as they stood at that early 
date in the mineral region of Alabama : 

Valley Forge, Bibb County, Al.\bama, 

August 21, 1830. 

Dear Son : These lines will inform you that I am well, and I express the sincere 
wish that you and your brother, sister and son, are similarly fortunate. 

I shall start one forge for Colonel McGehee in about four or five weeks, and then 
expect to build a saw-mill for myself. I can sell about two thousand dollars' worth of 
plank. I can cut pine timber on " Uncle Sam's " land, a practice very generally prevail- 
ing in this country. 

Colonel McGehee will assist me in any way, so I can get him agoing in a short time. 
He will want material for his furnace which he will commence building about Christmas. 
I am to superintend the building of it, and immediately afterward the building of 
another forge unless something prevents. 

I believe, George, that my prospects for making a handsome property are better 
than they ever were during all the course of my life. 

I wrote to Daniel and desired him to come to this country; for there is one of the 
best prospects I ever saw for him to make a fortune. I shall write to him and give par- 
ticulars of the prospects. It is as healthy here as in any part of Kentucky. I have had 
my health, I believe better, for I have gained considerably in weight since I have been 
here. 

I hope to come to see you all in March, for I can go from here to Nashville in five 
days by stage, and then take the steamboat. 

Give my love to Daniel, Jane, and Charles. From your father, 

Daniel Hillman. 



The Pio7ieer Iron-Makers ajid Irtni Interests. 585 

This letter was written from the scene of Mr. Hilhnan's work, as we 
find in the postscript directions to address the reply to his letter to Bucks- 
ville, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. 

Mr. Hillman formed, some time after this, a copartnership with 
Colonel McGehee, of Montgomery, and had he lived he intended to build the 
furnace referred to. He died in 1832. To him belongs the honor and 
fame of first making wrought or hammered iron in Alabama. 

His relation to the mineral region of Alabama is best expressed in the 
eloquent words of Miss Mary Gordon Duffee : 

"After a very careful comparison of different notes, I am led tO' 
believe that the first iron ever made in the present wonderland of the South 
was at a locality on Roupe's Creek, some two miles east of the well-known 
Elisha McMath place, and near the corners of four counties, viz: Tusca- 
loosa, Jefferson, Shelby, and Bibb." 

The same gifted writer further says: "Mr. Hillman was a very- 
talented man in his profession, and he may be justly styled the founder of 
the iron manufacture and trade of Alabama ; for, although Mr. McGehee 
furnished the means to build the first forge, it was the genius and 
unwearied skill and energy of Mr. Hillman that made it a success, dis- 
covered the possibilities of the mineral region, and demonstrated their 
importance and value to the demands of commerce." 

Mr. Daniel Hillman, father of the subject of this sketch, as already 
seen, had three brothers and one sister. From the time he was in the 
employ of the Shreeves as already noticed, he developed very rapidly the 
capacity for successful iron-making. 

Some time after his mother's death, which occurred in 1827, he 
formed a copartnership with William Wood, who owned a forge and fur- 
nace on the Little Sandy River, in Kentucky. 

In the fall of 1831, or spring of 1832, he went to Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, and formed a copartnership with A. W. Van Leer and John Sulli- 
van. The former gentleman owned the Cumberland Furnace in Dixon 
County, Tennessee, which was built by Montgomery Bell in 18 17 or 181 8, 
and was the first furnace made in the State to make hammered iron from 
pig iron. This firm built the Fairchance Furnace on Big Richland Creek, 
about twelve miles from Reynoldsburg, the county seat of Humphreys 
County, Tennessee. This furnace was in blast from the fall of 1832 to 
January, 1835. The market for their product was St. Louis, Missouri. 

After this Daniel Hillman formed a copartnership with A. W. Van 
Leer in the profits of Cumberland Furnace, which he managed, and the 
latter, after allowing the former his share of the profits, made more money 
32 



586 Jefferson County. 

than he had made before entering into this arrangement. This result 
could have been achieved in no other way than by skillful management. 

He was next associated with Dr. T. T. Watson, and they together 
put up the Fulton Furnace, in Kentucky. 

In November, 1845, the firm of Watson & Hillman, in connection 
•with B. M. Runyan, C. E. Hillman, and A. W. Van Leer, under the 
firm name of Hillman, Van Leer & Co., purchased the Tennessee Rolling 
Mills, in Nashville, which had been built in 1834 by E. D. Hicks, Robert 
Baxter, and Henry Ewing. Daniel Hillman and T. T. Watson owned a 
three-fourths interest, the remaining portion being owned by A. W. Van 
Leer. The mill was taken down and moved one hundred and fifty miles 
below Nashville, on the Cumberland River, to Lyon County, Kentucky, 
where it was rebuilt. Mr. Hillman performed the important part of tak- 
ing down the heavy machinery and floating it down the river on rafts made 
of the timber. Near this mill were four furnaces — Empire, Center, Ful- 
ton, and Trigg. The three first were on the opposite side of the river 
from the mill. It was here that Mr. Hillman's genius as an iron manu- 
facturer produced those admirable results that have made his name 
famous, and constituted him a standard authority in this grest industry. 

The erection of the mills was commenced in March, 1846, and the 
first bar of iron was rolled out in December of the same year. From this 
time forth the mill made a reputation that spread throughout the length 
and breadth of the country. The quality of rolled iron it made was of 
the highest excellence, and especially was this the case with the boiler 
plate. The company kept a large standing reward for any authentic 
instance brought to their notice where it proved defective. That the mill 
enjoyed wonderful prosperity is quite natural. Mr. Hillman was in charge 
of these mills up to 1847, and also gave his attention to the furnaces, and 
upon Dr. Watson's death in that year purchased his interest in the two 
furnaces they had owned together, the Fulton and Empire. 

From this time up to the breaking out of the war the mill and fur- 
naces had a uniformly successful career. 

In 1854 the three brothers, Daniel, George, and C. E. Hillman, 
became owners by purchase of the entire mill property. The firm was 
then known as Hillman Brothers. In 1864 or 1865 Daniel Hillman 
bought George W. Hillman's one-fourth interest in the mill for $100,000 
cash. 

As a convincing proof of the success of the business, we have but to 
mention the fact that from October, 1855, to 1862, the profits of the busi- 
ness were ^1,300,000. 



The Pioneer Iroji-Makers and Iron Interests. 587 

Mr. Hillman, besides owning the mill and furnace property, also 
owned many thousands of acres of mineral lands and several hundred 
negroes. 

Mr. Hillman was married in April, 1839, '^o Miss Ann, daughter of 
Hon. John H. Marable, of Montgomery County, Tennessee, who repre- 
sented his district for several terms in the United States Congress. There 
were four children in the family. John H., Thomas T. , Ann Fredonia, 
and Grace C. , all are still living. J. H. Hillman is a resident of Pittsburg, 
and is engaged in the iron business. Ann married Dr. E. N. Franklin, 
and resides in Gallatin, Tennessee. The remaining sister, Grace, is Mrs. 
Scales, of Nashville, Tennessee. Mrs. Hillman died in April, 1861. 

Mr. Hillman was married the second time to Miss Mary, daughter of 
the Hon. Meredith P. Gentry, of Williamson County, Tennessee. To this 
second marriage five children were born — Daniel, Meredith P., Gentry, 
James H., and Carter, who died in infancy. All the former are now living 
at Trigg Furnace, Trigg County, Kentucky. Mrs. Hillman is still living. 

Mr. Hillman died January 3, 1884, at his home in Tennessee. No 
man ever dying within the bounds of the Southern country did more to 
inspire the Southern heart with the fervent desire to do homage to his 
name. He was the pioneer of an industry that has awakened the entire 
South from a lethargic sleep, and is fast carrying her to the realization 
of that destiny, where she will stand among the foremost sections of 
the American Union as an iron and steel producing country. He visited 
this part of Alabama in 1872, and while riding one day oh top of Red 
Mountain, in company with Major Thomas Peters, near Redding 
Mines, dismounted from his horse, and made use of the expression : 
"Here is the spot most favored for iron-making in the world. " It has 
since become prophetic, and we have only to think of the wonderful devel- 
opment around us to be convinced of the truthfulness of the assertion. 

Returning to Mr. Hillman, we find that while he was yet in his infancy 
he was taken by his mother to Fulton Furnace, in Kentucky, whither they 
were preceded by his father. Here the first years of his infancy were 
spent. His father then moved to the Empire Furnace, only a short dis- 
tance from the former, while Thomas was still an infant. This change of 
residence was owing to the death of Dr. Watson, who had up to this time 
controlled the Empire Furnace. Here he stayed with his parents until he 
was seven years old, and received the primitive training afforded by the 
■country schools. About the time he had attained his seventh year he 
was thrown from a horse. From this accident he was an invalid for six 
years. For some time after this occurrence he was taught by his mother, 



588 Jefferson Coiuity. 

and his father then took him to his office and trained him in the ways of 
business, which well fitted him for his future success. From his fifteenth 
to his sixteenth year he was at Bendusia Academy, in Edgefield, near 
Nashville, Tennessee, under Professor Nathaniel Cross, a noted educator. 
His whole school life was two years. About this time the war came on, 
and he went home, and his father gave him charge of the Empire, Center, 
and Fulton Furnaces, but the Center Furnace was the only one in opera- 
tion. The three furnaces. Empire, Fulton, and Center, were frequently 
on different sides of the line twice a week. 

After the close of the war, when he had attained his twenty-first year, 
his father gave him a fifty-thousand-dollar interest in the business, his 
special work being to manage the furnaces. Under his supervision their 
product was greater than ever. He remained here from 1S66 to 1878, 
inclusive. How important to him were these years of devotion to a 
splendid industry! 

In the beginning of 1879 he purchased the stock of iron and heavy 
hardware from Daniel Hillman & Sons, of Nashville, Tennessee, and sold 
out July 29, 1879. 

Prior to this he had visited Birmingham and had formed a copartner- 
ship with Mr. H. F. DeBardeleben, under the firm name of Hillman & 
DeBardeleben, for the purpose of erecting a furnace. Alice Furnace, 
No. I, was commenced September 29, 1879, and went into blast Novem- 
ber 23, 1880. 

Inthe latter part of 1880 the Hillman Coal and Iron Company, com- 
posed of Colonel Samuel Tate, Daniel Hillman, M. B. Prichard, and 
Colonel Thomas Peters, was consolidated with the Birmingham Coal and 
Iron Company, composed of the same gentlemen, with the addition of 
Charles Hillman. The Alice Furnace Company was formed of all the 
above-mentioned companies. 

The capital stock of the new concern was two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars being repre- 
sented by Hillman and DeBardeleben, the remainder by the other mem- 
bers of the company. The directors were Samuel Tate, Charles Hillman, 
Thomas Peters, H. F. DeBardeleben, and T. T. Hillman. The officers 
wereT. T. Hillman, President; F. L. VVadsworth, Secretary and Treasurer. 

For the first year No. i furnace made an average of fifty-three tons 
per day, and ran three years, eight months, and nineteen days. Since 
adding a Whitewell fire-brick stove the daily capacity has been ninety 
tons per day. 



The Pioficer Iron- Makers and Iron Interests. 589 

I'"urnace No. 2 was commenced in January, 1882, and was put in blast 
in July, 1883. At first it did not work so well as No. i. It had to be 
relined after one year, but since then it has run well and given satisfactory 
results. It is one of the largest furnaces in the South. There are four 
others, two at South Pittsburg and two at Dayton, Tennessee, as large. 
To this furnace belongs the credit of making the largest daily run of any 
single furnace in the South, which was one hundred and fifty tons. This 
result was achieved in the summer of 1886. The output is now 
between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and fifty tons. Both 
these furnaces have made reputations, both in quality and quantity of 
iron. As time goes on the operation of these furnaces becomes more and 
more successful. 

In May, 1884, the Alice F'urnace Company was consolidated with the 
Pratt Coal and Iron Company, but the name Alice Furnace Company was 
retained until the beginning of 1887, and at that time the Pratt Coal and 
Iron Company was consolidated with the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail- 
road Company, under the latter corporate name. In this company the 
officers were Enoch Ensley, President; T. T. Hillman, Vice-President; 
A. M. Shook, General Manager ; Nathaniel Baxter, Chairman of the Exec- 
utive Committee ; James Bowron, Treasurer, and C. Flisher, Secretary. 

At a meeting of the stockholders of the company, held in Nashville, 
Tennessee, April 4, 1887, the following directors were elected: N. Baxter, 
Jr., of Nashville; T. T. Hillman, of Birmingham; Enoch Ensley and 
Napoleon Hill, of Memphis; A. S. Colyar, W. M. Duncan, S. J. Keith, 
T. M. Steger, John P. Williams, A. M. Shook, and D. C. Scales, of Nash- 
ville; J. H. Inman, J. D. Probst, and T. W. Evans, of New York, and 
Samuel Tate, Jr., of Memphis. These directors immediately organized 
by the election of the following officers : N. Baxter, Jr., President; T. T. 
Hillman, Vice-President; A. M. Shook, General Manager, and James Bow- 
ron, Secretary and Treasurer. 

An idea of the importance of this consolidation may be gained from 
a brief statement of the possessions of the two. 

The Pratt Coal and Iron Company represented the Linn Iron Works, 
the Alice Furnace Company, the Pratt Coal and Iron Company proper, 
with about seventy thousand to eighty thousand acres of mineral lands. 
The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, on the other hand, rep- 
resents possessions of almost equal importance. The Pratt Coal and Iron 
Company is at present putting up four furnaces, the largest in the South. 
These are to be put in operation in the near future. 

It is needless to speak of the order of abilit)' necessary in the manage- 



590 Jefferson Coujity. 

ment of enterprises of the magnitude of those just mentioned. Mr. Hill- 
man's prominent connection with them is the sure test of his worth. 

Mr. Hillman was married July 25, 1867, to Miss Emily, daughter of 
the Hon. Meredith P. Gentry, of Williamson County, Tennessee. This 
marriage occurred at the Clover Bottom Farm, near the Hermitage, the 
home of General Andrew Jackson. 

Mr. Gentry was, in his day, the most brilliant light in the political 
firmament of Tennessee. He first appeared in politics in 1835, when he 
was elected to the State Legislature of Tennessee for two successive terms, 
and then sent to Congress from his district for a number of terms. He 
won distinction for the eminent ability he displayed. He won a name 
that was national, and that will be handed down to the remotest posterity 
as among the proudest records of Tennessee's history. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hillman are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, and the former is also a Knight Templar. 

It seldom happens that such a continued succession of names of the 
same family is identified with the same business or profession, and yet we 
find that from Daniel H. Hillman, who ran a forge in New Jersey, in 18 14, 
to the present time, the name is closely associated with the iron industry; 
to Daniel H. Hillman, who died at Burksville with great plans in view for 
this mineral region, and the pioneer of its iron manufacture ; to Daniel 
Hillman, his son, who heralded her fame abroad, and was an earnest 
defender of her claims to recognition ; and especially to T. T. Hillman 
will Alabama ever pay the homage of true gratitude for their and his 
unswerving efforts to develop her mineral wealth. 



ENOCH ENSLEY, 

EX-PRESIDENT OF THE TENNESSEE COAL, IRON AND RAILROAD COMPANY. 

Enoch Ensley is the most conspicuous example of the conversion of 
a cotton planter into a great miner and manufacturer in the whole South. 
His hereditary possessions, a cotton planter, on the Mississippi were worth 
a million of dollars in i860. He yet retains the realty given to him by 
his father in that line, and continues to operate it. 

In 1834 Enoch Ensley was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 
educated in the schools of Tennessee and graduated in the law college at 
Lebanon. He was licensed to practice law, but did not engage in it, devot- 
ing his whole attention to his cotton-planting affairs and to municipal, 
affairs in his native city. 



The Pioneer Iron-Make7-s and Iron Interests. 59 r 

In 1881 Mr. Ensley came to Jefferson County, and with some associates 
bought the Pratt Coal Mines. He became president of the corporation, 
took up his abode at the mines for the greater part of his time, and 
entered with great energy into the labor of developing them. He has com- 
manded in this work the confidence of the corporation, and in the year 
1886 the greatest coal and iron corporation of the South, including the 
Pratt Mines property, organized, calling itself the Tennessee Coal, Iron and 
Railroad Company, making him president. The company is erecting 
four blast furnaces at Pratt Mines, and enlarging the great coal mines to 
unparalleled proportions. 

Mr. Ensley is a fluent speaker, a logical reasoner, and an honor to 
Jefferson County. His wife and family have never moved from Memphis. 



HOT BLAST FURNACES. 

Eureka Company, Oxmoor. — These furnaces are six miles southwest 
from Birmingham, upon the South and North Railroad. They are built 
upon the site of a small charcoal furnace erected for the use of the Con- 
federate Government in 1862, and which was destroyed by Wilson's raid- 
ers in 1865, immediately preceding the surrender of the Confederate 
armies. The present plant is the oldest established in Jefferson County, 
having been rebuilt after the war. The first iron made by coke in the 
county was made here, and the first output of the furnaces, although good 
pig to the eye, proved to be useless as mill iron or for any other purpose. 
It was thus first discovered that the coke used had introduced into the 
metal while in process of smelting an injurious element. The Pratt Mines 
coke was substituted, and the pig thereafter turned out has taken high rank 
in all eastern and western markets. The capital invested is ;$850,000; 
annual output 50,000 tons. The company owns its own ore beds, some 
three miles from the furnaces. 



WOODWARD IRON COMPANY. 

This company '.vas organized in the fall of 1881 by the selection of 
W. H. Woodward as President, and J. H. Woodward as Secretary and 
Treasurer. The Board of Directors was composed of these gentlemen and 
J. N. Vance, who was President of the Riverside Iron Works, at Wheel- 
ing, West Virginia. 



592 Jefferson Count\. 

The site upon which the two furnaces were erected, as well as some 
of contiguous ore and mineral lands was purchased by the present com- 
pany after the war. The organization of the Woodward Iron Company 
represented the accession of one of the most important and significant enter- 
prises to Southern industrial development that has taken place since the 
war. At the time of the organization the capital stock was placed at 
;$475,000, and remained at this figure until the annual meeting of the 
directors in March, 1886, when it was increased to ;? 1,000,000, and at the 
same time J. H. Woodward was elected president, and in the following 
April, F. H. Armstrong was made secretary and treasurer. 

Some interesting data in reference to the running of Furnace No. i, is 
very appropriate in this connection. It went into blast August 17, 1883, 
and to August 31, 1884, made 26,026 tons of pig-iron ; to August 31, 
1885, made 30,856 tons; to August 31, 1886, made 31,355 tons; and 
to January 10, 1887, when it went out of blast made 12,610 tons; giving 
as a grand total 100,847 tons. 

At the time it was blown-out it had been in blast three years, four 
months and twenty-three days. It could have been run on indefinitely, 
but, owing to the inability of the company to get sufficient quantities of 
coke to supply both it and the new furnace, which went into blast January 
26, 1887, it was deemed advisable and best to shut it down. 

These furnaces are located at Woodward, Alabama, about twelve 
miles southwest of Birmingham, and the following facts comprise a full 
statement of what the works consist: Two stacks, each 17 x 75, one built 
in 1882-83, arid put in blast August 17, 1883 ; the other stack was built 
in 1886, and put in blast January 26, 1887. The first stack has three 
Whitewell hot-blast stoves, each 18x70; the second, four iron stoves ; 
fuel, coke made from company's coal ; ores, brown, hematite, black band, 
and red fossil, mined within three miles of the furnace ; specialty, foundry 
pig-iron; total annual capacity, sixty thousand tons, net; brand, Wood- 
ward. The telegraph address of the company is Birmingham, Alabama. 

ALICE FURNACF: company, BIRMINGHAM. 

There are two stacks in this company's plant. The yards are on the 
southwestern suburbs of the city, and front on the Alabama Great Southern 
and the South & North Railroads. The first furnace was built in 1880, 
and the second the year following. The capital is g8oo,000. The output 
is about sixty thousand tons of pig-iron per annum. The company owns 
a large body of ore land and coal land within a few miles of the city. 



Tlie Pioneer Iron-Makers and Iron Interests. 593 



SLOSS COAL AND IRON COMPANY, BIRMINGHAM. 

Two furnaces situated on the northeastern bounds of the city, 
between the Alabama Great Southern and South & North Railroads, with 
some fifty acres of land adjoining, comprise the suburban property of this 
splendid corporation. It owns about forty miles of the outcrop of Red 
Mountain, practically inexhaustible in ores, and beginning some five miles 
from the city. It also owns large bodies of brown ores in Cahaba, Coosa, 
and Murphree's Valleys, and about ten thousand acres of coal lands and 
limestone of the highest grade, inexhaustible in supply. The two fur- 
naces make an output of about sixty-five thousand tons of pig-iron per 
year. The capital stock is ^3,000,000. The furnaces were built in 
1882-83. 

The Sloss Steel and Iron Company has purchased the entire stock of 
the Coalburg Coal and Coke Company, consolidating the two companies 
and forming the second largest coal and iron company in the South, and 
one that may yet rival any similar company in the world in the extent and 
importance of its industries. This gigantic- company own about thirty- 
eight thousand acres of land, teeming with wealth in the shape of coal, 
iron ore, limestone, timber, and perhaps many other as yet undiscovered 
minerals of great value. Their other property consists of the two Sloss 
furnaces, with a capacity of two hundred tons per day, the mines at Coal- 
burg, with a daily output (when worked to their full capacity) of one 
thousand tons of coal per day, three hundred coke ovens at Coalburg, 
rich ore mines and limestone quarries near Irondale, and fifty-two acres of 
land in North Birmingham, upon which the Coalburg Company has already 
begun the erection of a hundred-ton furnace. The company is now 
known as the Sloss Steel and Iron Company. 

MARY PRATT FURNACE COMPANY. 

One stack, situated near the Sloss Furnaces. Capital, $300,000. 
It owns considerable ore lands ; output, about fourteen thousand tons per 
year; established in 1883. 

WILLIAMSON FURNACE COMPANY, 

situated near the Alice Furnaces, comprises this property. It was built 
in 1886, and the machinery made at the Williamson Foundry in this city. 
The capital is $125,000; capacity, about fifteen thousand tons. 



594 Jefferson County. 



PROJECTED FURNACES. 

The blast furnaces completed and not in blast, or being built, in Jeffer- 
son County April i, 1887, are two of the Bessemer Company, four of the 
Tennessee and Alabama Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, two of the 
Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Company, two of the Birmingham. 
Iron Manufacturing Company, and one of the Coalburg Coal and Coke 
Company. 

BIRMINGHAM ROLLING MILLS. 

These mills make bar, rod, city street railroad, and sheet iron. The 
capital is about $400,000. The demand is above the capacity of the mills. 
They have enlarged several times since it was built, in 1882-83. 



ALABAMA ROLLING MILL COMPANY. 

Another important and much-needed industry was organized April 
2, 1887 — the Alabama Rolling Mill Company; capital stock, $250,000, 
which is all taken. The directors of the company are Fred. Sloss, of 
this city ; C. A. Borts and D. M. Forker, of Ohio ; W. H. Bofinger and 
W. H. Hassinger, of New Orleans. Mr. Fred. Sloss was elected Presi- 
dent, W. H. Hassinger Vice-President and Manager, and D. M. Forker Sec- 
retary and Treasurer. 

The Gate City Land Company has given the new rolling mill com- 
pany thirty acres of land a few miles east of the city, on the Alabama 
Great Southern and Georgia Pacific Railroads. Work will begin on the 
plant at once. The capacity of the mill will be sixty tons, and may be 
enlarged to one hundred tons. 

The stock is owned by Birmingham, New Orleans, and Ohio gentle- 
men, who mean business, and will complete the mill in the shortest possi- 
ble time. 

COAL AND ORE MINES. 

The operated coal mines of Jefferson County are: the Pratt, Warrior, 
Jefferson, Brake, Hoene, Pierce, Henry-Ellen, Coalburg, and New Castle. 

The Pratt Mines are the largest. They employ from 1,000 to 1,500 
men, of which number 500 to 600 are State convicts. The corporation 
own about 70,000 acres of mineral lands in the Warrior coal fields. The 
capacity of these mines is, or will be soon, 3,000 tons per day. The mines 



The Pioneer Iron- Makers and Iron hiterests. 595. 

are six miles from Birmingham, and are connected with the city by a 
broad-gauge railroad owned by the mines. The ventilation of these mines 
is perfect. Accidents are very rare. 

The convict miners are closely inspected by the State authorities, and 
moderately worked. The mortality among them is very low. 

Ore Mines. — The ore mines are chiefly owned and operated by the 
furnaces named in another page of this volume. 

RAILROADS. 

The two original lines of railroad crossing at Birmingham, and 
especially described in another chapter, have proven the wisdom of their 
location by attracting to the city several other independent and competing 
lines. The indications are that Birmingham will ere long become one of 
the great railroad centers of the United States. Its position as the chief 
center of railroad traffic in the South is already assured. 

The roads built to cross at the city since 1883, and now being built, 
are the Georgia Pacific, connecting Atlanta and Columbus, Mississippi, with 
the city ; the Georgia Central, connecting it with Columbus, Georgia ; the 
Mobile & North Western, connecting it with Mobile ; the LaGrange & 
Birmingham, connecting it with all of Middle Georgia ; the Sheffield & 
Birmingham ; the Kansas City & Birmingham. The roads enumerated 
make twelve radii of trunk lines reaching out to every point of the com- 
pass. The apparent result must be the creation of a diversity of commerce 
for the city which must greatly enrich it, and erect its wealth upon the 
most enduring foundation. The cotton region, in easy reach of the city, 
will become tributary to its growth by what it sends in for sale, and what 
it takes out for consumption. It will be attracted by the favorable freight 
charges made inevitable by competition among the roads. 

A railroad is now being built from Bessemer to Guntersville, Alabama. 

The mines and furnaces have many miles of railroad connecting with 
the city, and which do a very heavy business. 

TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 

Small towns and villages are growing up in all parts of Jefferson 
County. In addition to those suburban villages, elsewhere in these pages 
named, are the following: Elyton, 1,000 population; Trussville, 350; 
Coketon, or Pratt Mines, 4,000; Coalburg, 600 or 700; Jonesboro, Wood- 
lawn, Bessemer, Wheeling, New Castle, Warrior, Irondale, Leeds>. 
Ensley City, each with a population ranging from 200 to 350 souls. 



